Progressive Party

The only possible election strategy that could offer any success to Serbia's liberal opposition parties is to create a coalition that could challenge Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's ruling Progressive Party, according to analysts.

Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Jan. 17 he had decided to call a snap election in a move designed to cement his leadership and help advance the Balkan country's negotiations to join the European Union. 

Protesters gathered in front of the Serbian government building on Monday in the latest in a series of rallies under the slogan "Journalists do not kneel" to demand that the promise to sack Gasic be fulfilled.

Serbia's opposition Democratic Party, DS, says it is facing sustained harassment ahead of important test elections in the province of Vojvodina loosely set for April or May.

December saw the dramatic arrest of 80 people in an anti-corruption swoop, which included several members of the Democratic Party, Aleksandra Jerkov, the party spokesperson and an MP, noted.

Leaders of the two ruling parties in Serbia, Progressive chief Aleksandar Vucic and Socialist leader Ivica Dacic, have vowed not to form a grand coalition ahead of elections in the northern province of Vojvodina, leaving future arrangements to post-election negotiations.

Serbian opposition parties have slated the Defence Minister, Bratislav Gasic, for allowing a local authority to use soldiers to serve alcoholic drinks - rakija [fruit brandy] and boiled wine - at a pop concert in the minister's home town of Krusevac on December 31.

The event was a concert by the popular folk singer Svetlana "Ceca" Raznatovic.

Kurir owner Rodic on Monday accused Miroslav Bogicevic, a Serbian businessman currently on trial for corruption and Goran Veselinovic, a member of the main board of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, of blackmailing him with the backing of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

After the website Teleprompter published what appears to be a transcribed conversation of Bojan Pajtic, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, on Friday he urged parliament to investigate who was behind the wiretapping.

Supporters of the Let's Not Drown Belgrade campaign that opposes a government-backed plan to develop the city's riverfront say police officers denied them access to the site during Sunday's official foundation stone laying ceremony.

Vujacic, who was involved in forming the Serbian caucus in the US in 2004, downplayed the importance of the letter sent on the eve of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's visit to Washington.

He told BIRN on Thursday that such caucuses are transparent informal parliamentary groups of US Congressmen or Senators who gather in relation to a country or a specific issue.