Serbia's parliament endorses new Ana Brnabic-led government

A total of 227 out of 250 deputies voted in favour of prime minister Ana Brnabic's government, the Serbian government said in a statement on Wednesday.

During the debate leading up to vote late on Wednesday, Brnabic said the cabinet would continue the EU integration process, but will keep friendly relations with Russia and China and will build better ties with the U.S.

Last week, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said the new government will be in power for less than two years, or about half of its regular four-year term, and the next general election will be held on April 3, 2022, at the latest, along with the presidential elections.

The new government will have six main goals - fight against COVID-19 and strengthening the healthcare system; preserving the vital interests of the Serbian people in Kosovo; fighting organised crime and comprehensive war against the mafia; preserving the independence of Serbia; advancing the rule of law and accelerating reforms on the country's EU path; and supporting the economic growth of Serbia, Brnabic said.

"We expect that the world will be able to return to some kind of normalcy only in 2022, and that in economic sense, the world will recover from the crisis only in 2029, when the balance of powers in the world will probably be much different. In all this, Serbia must continue progressing and do it even faster," Brnabic noted.

The new government will start the construction of a gas interconnection with Bulgaria and expand the Banatski Dvor gas storage facility, support the development of the Jadar lithium project and cooperate with British-Australian mining group Rio Tinto in finding a strategic partner for the construction of a factory for the production of electric vehicles or batteries for electric vehicles, establish an artificial intelligence development institute and open a data centre in Kragujevac, she said.

The new government has 21 ministries and two ministers without portfolio. Six of the ministries are new and 11 of the ministers are women. The government includes representatives of populist conservative Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which won a landslide victory at the general election held on June 21, runner-up Socalist Party of Serbia (SPS) and the Serbian Patriotic Alliance (SPAS).