Vučić: Elections by early December, Western Balkans to join the EU together

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić told the Financial Times (FT) that he plans to return to the post of prime minister after the early elections, which will be held by early December, and that he advocates for the Western Balkan countries to join the European Union as a bloc.

The FT recalls that Serbia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2012, but that the accession process has been stalled for 13 years, during which time Aleksandar Vučić has been the key political arbiter in various state positions.

The paper adds that Vučić, who opponents accuse of being a corrupt autocrat, faces the biggest challenge of his political career since the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad train station in 2024, when 16 people died, triggering more than 20 months of anti-government protests.

To appease critics, he promised to call early elections this year, and last month he announced that he would resign as President of the Republic, a largely ceremonial position from which he wielded political power, thanks to his influence in the ruling party.

Vučić told the FT that he intends to fulfill that promise, before, in all likelihood, returning to the post of prime minister, which he left ten years ago.

"We will most likely have parliamentary elections first, and then presidential elections... Parliamentary elections will be held by the beginning of December... There is no room for different decisions," Vučić said.

In an interview published today in the FT newsletter titled “The Big Bang”, Vučić also called on Brussels to abandon the increasingly merit-based approach to enlargement, under which Montenegro and Albania are currently the leading candidates, and instead admit the Western Balkan countries together.

"What do you want to build? Even tighter borders between everyone?" he asked.

"If we all enter together... there will be no borders between Pristina, Belgrade and everyone else... The region needs to be united. Not become a new conflict zone between people who enter the EU and those who are still far from it," he added.

The FT states that these statements come ahead of today's meetings in Brussels, where Montenegro and Albania will close chapters in their accession negotiations with the EU, and Ukraine and Moldova will open another cluster each.

Irish Minister for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said today's progress "is a signal to all candidate countries that if they do their part, they will be rewarded."

"The process is real... Montenegro is more than halfway through the accession process... and we hope this momentum will continue," Byrne added.

The FT adds that Serbia's accession "has long been held back by a long-running dispute with its former province of Kosovo, as well as concerns about the rule of law and corruption."

Vučić said that "the government is working on laws against corruption and everything else."