Serbia: the new power will be pro-EU without sanctioning Moscow, according to a head of the list

The new Serbian majority resulting from the student movement will maintain entry into the European Union as a “strategic objective”, but will continue not to participate in the sanctions against Moscow, one of its top candidates declared to AFP on Tuesday.

The list representing the student movement, which had been demonstrating against corruption for two years, won at the polls on October 25 against the conservative SNS party of Aleksandar Vucic, dominant figure in Serbian political life for 14 years.

“From a geostrategic and geopolitical point of view, we are in Europe”

In an interview with AFP, Mirjana Nikolic, 60, rector of the University of Art in Belgrade, stressed that the future government resulting from this majority will have internal issues as a priority, first and foremost the fight against corruption. However, she stressed that Serbia would maintain the objective of joining the EU, stated by all Serbian governments since 2000.

“This remains a strategic objective,” said Mirjana Nikolic. “Almost all our neighbors are members of the EU. From a geostrategic and geopolitical point of view, we are in Europe,” she added. But the new majority, which is still waiting for the final results to begin forming a government, will not adopt sanctions against Russia, despite injunctions from Brussels since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Belgrade depends very heavily on Moscow for its gas supply

“The students and colleagues who wrote this part of the program were very clear that they were opposed to sanctions against Russia,” Mirjana Nikolic said. After the massive Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Aleksandar Vucic supported the territorial integrity of Ukraine, without joining the sanctions against Russia voted by the European Union (EU). Belgrade, which historically maintains good relations with Russia, depends very heavily on Moscow for its gas supplies.

But Serbia is also a candidate for EU membership and is playing a balancing act to preserve its ties with Brussels and Moscow. The list of students obtained 53% of the votes against 39% for Aleksandar Vucic's coalition, according to the Serbian electoral commission. The movement would therefore obtain around 140 of the 250 seats in Parliament, enough to govern alone.