Serbian President’s Fallen Lieutenant Limps On

Early next year, there will be local elections in Belgrade, an election for president and, most likely, parliamentary elections too.

Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, are faring worst in the capital, where the Progressive administration is accused of corruption and mismanagement.

Belgrade has become a city of flourishing illegal construction, where huge amounts of money of dubious origin are laundered and the road system cannot cope with the volume of traffic.

Some streets and squares have been undergoing reconstruction work for years, while instead of solving communal problems the city authorities appear more interested in erecting expensive monuments to famous Serbs.

Though the mayor is formally Zoran Radojicic, Goran Vesic, one of the most unpopular SNS officials, actually runs Belgrade. Stefanovic heads the party's Belgrade board, which has also fallen out of favour with voters.

Vesic and Stefanovic appear destined for the chop. Vesic has already been "shot at" by former water polo star Aleksandar Sapic, who merged his SPAS party with SNS in May and is viewed as frontrunner for the SNS mayoral candidacy. He says "there will be no place for Vesic" in his team.

Sapic, however, might also take Stefanovic's place at the helm of the Belgrade SNS. Dozens of SNS municipal boards have demanded Stefanovic be removed from all party functions and the post of defence minister.

Vucic had already vowed he would take no part in the campaign against Stefanovic. But its intensification can hardly have happened without the tacit approval of the boss.

In order to disguise the campaign, some SNS municipal boards also targeted other minister, including Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar and Local Self...