The head of the SPO delegation to the European Parliament is calling for extraordinary elections following a reform of the electoral law in Serbia and the formation of a national unity government.
“Vučić is at the bottom, he does not have a majority in the country. If he wanted to win the elections again, he would have to organize ‘massively’, that is, manipulate,” says Andreas Schieder.
This social democrat MEP is one of the rare European politicians who not only closely follows Serbian politics, but also finds the courage to criticize the authoritarian regime of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the recent police violence against students.
He emphasizes that it is essential that in the upcoming elections there be a list of the democratic movement led by students.
“Students have support across the social spectrum, from their parents and grandparents. With them, a transitional government of national unity should be formed, so that the country can change and be liberated,” he told STANDARD.
He compares the situation to 2000, when Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power and reformist Zoran Djindjic took over the leadership of the state.
“We call the Zoran Djindjic of these years the student movement,” he says of the largest democratic movement currently in Europe. He adds that even the opposition parties are clear that students should be the leaders of the movement after extraordinary elections, for which everyone should sit at the same table.
Criticism of the Serbian leader also comes from the European People’s Party (EPP), of which Vučić’s SNS is a member.
EPP Chairman Manfred Weber stated that the party has decided to launch a procedure to verify the affiliated membership of the SNS.
“The EPP has not closed its eyes to the events in Serbia. The procedure is expected to be completed in the coming days,” he declared.
For ten months, tens of thousands of Serbian citizens have taken to the streets demanding more rule of law and transparency.
They want to democratize a country whose institutions have been “captured” by Vučić’s SNS. Under Vučić, there has long been no separation of powers in Serbia. /Telegraph/