Vučić planned a forceful scenario in Serbia’s election: what we know

On the day of Serbia’s parliamentary election, President Aleksandar Vučić was preparing to refuse to recognise the results, according to sources cited by Britain’s The Times: about 4,000 police officers and 3,000 men dressed in black were sent into central Belgrade. He backed down when the student list pulled ahead by half a million votes.

What the sources say

According to Spasoje Vulević, a former commander of Serbia’s counter-terrorism special unit (SAJ), the men were sent out in small groups of 20–30 people. He is “100 percent sure” that the president planned not to accept the outcome. Groups of men in black, the sources say, appeared while police occupied certain locations and closed roads. Rade Đurić, a lawyer for the Association of Independent Journalists of Serbia, believes the authorities wanted to point to “irregularities” and demand a re-run of the vote, which would have triggered protests.

The information was also confirmed by MEP Sandro Gozi: on election day he received reports from diplomatic sources that Vučić was ready to use force.

The turning point and the phone calls

The turning point came roughly an hour and a half after polling stations closed, when it became clear that the opposition student list was leading by half a million votes. According to the sources, Vučić stopped resisting the result and the groups gathered in the centre dispersed. Opposition candidate Radomir Saičić claims the president received calls from representatives of the police and other circles warning him of the consequences of a violent intervention.

Vulević believes the decisive pressure may have come directly from European governments at the highest political level. There are also unconfirmed rumours in Belgrade that Vučić was talked out of trying to cling to power by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz