August 12 (SeeNews) - The Serbian Parliament voted in late on Thursday a new cabinet headed by Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the conservative Progressive Party, some four months after it won early elections pledging to step up reforms and continue talks to join the EU.
The new cabinet includes 19 ministers of the Progressive party and its minor party, the Socialist party, as except for eight new entrants its lineup is identical to that of Vucic's previous government elected in 2014, the government said on its website.
New ministers will head the ministries of economy, justice, education, public administration and local self-government, agriculture and environment, and culture and information.
Despite the new entrants in the government, it is unlikely to make any surprise changes in the country's political or economic course, analysts commented for SeeNews on Thursday.
"I think the government's course will remain the same and there will be no big steps forward in the main political goals, such as membership of the European Union," political analyst Vladimir Goati told SeeNews. "The policy regarding investors and granting of subsidies for the sake of creating new jobs will also remain the same," he added.
Speaking before parliament earlier this week, Vucic said the main task of Serbia's new government in the next hundred days will be to maintain macroeconomic stability as a prerequisite for all other reforms. The new government also plans a revision of the state budget for 2016 as budget performance has been much better than expected.
According to the prime minister's adviser for agriculture, Dragan Glamocic, this sector will be of strategic importance for the country's further economic development. "The development of small and medium-sized farmsteads will be one of the priorities," Glamocic told SeeNews, adding that revenue from agriculture exports is expected to grow, helping the government achieve one of its main objectives - macroeconomic stability.
Serbia held early elections on April 24, forced by Vucic who said he needed to secure broader public support for overdue reforms. His Progressive Party garnered 48.25% of the votes, giving him 131 MPs in the 250-seat parliament. The Serbian Socialist Party (SPS), led by deputy prime minister Ivica Dacic, and its partner United Serbia, have 29 seats in parliament, and the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) of Vojislav Seselj has 22 representatives. Seven political formations crossed the 5% threshold for entry into parliament.