June 8 (SeeNews) - Serbia will hold early parliamentary elections, president Aleksandar Vucic said.
“It is clear that we will hold early general elections, it is just a question of which month they will be held in,” Vucic said in a YouTube video posted on his channel on Wednesday.
“We will not have a transitional government, because that is down to my decision and it is a decision I will never make. That would mean destroying Serbia,” added Vucic.
The announcement comes amid anti-government rallies in Belgrade over the past month following two mass shootings at schools. The protesters have called on Vucic, interior minister Bratislav Gasic, and the director of the Security Information Agency, BIA, Aleksandar Vulin, to step down, saying that the government and the media outlets it controls are promoting hate speech and inciting violence which indirectly led to the shootings.
Vucic resigned as head of the Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, last month with defence minister Milos Vucevic named as his successor.
Serbia held an early general election in April 2022, in which the SNS won 42.97% of the vote, giving the party 121 of 250 seats in parliament. Its coalition partner, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), got 11.5%, or 32 seats. The parliament was elected for a four-year term.
In the presidential elections, which were held simultaneously with the vote for members of parliament, Vucic secured a second term in office.