Progressive Party

Serbia's National Council for Cooperation with Russia and China and the Chinese ambassador in Belgrade, Li Manchang, have pledged to support the establishment of a Chinese-Serbian association of companies.

However, many experts doubt that Serbia stands to gain much from it, unless the country greatly increases its volume of exports.

Data obtained by an NGO in Serbia, the National Coalition for Decentralization, NKD, show that since the Progressive Party took power in Serbia in 2012, the country has spent around 25 million euros on early elections, adding that new parliamentary elections would likely mean new unnecessary spending as well.

BIRN can reveal that Dragoljub Zbiljic, the owner of energy company Juzna Backa, helped Serbia's ruling Progressive Party raise a loan for half a million euros ahead of the general election in 2012 - that saw the Progressives come to power.

The president of a far-right group, the Serbian National Movement Nasi ['ours'], was acquitted of persecution, racial discrimination and other forms of discrimination Tuesday. Ivan Ivanoviv faced charges for publishing a blacklist of public figures who he said were anti-Serb "traitors".

Serbia announced the formation on Monday of a "working group" for the second phase of the country's "internal dialogue" on Kosovo, the former province that proclaimed its independence in 2008.

However, some experts have called the formation of the new group absurd, saying the result of the first phase remain totally unknown.

Montenegro opposition leader Milan Knezevic on Monday pleaded not guilty to charges of plotting a coup, and told the court in Podgorica that he was only there because he was a Serb who opposed Montenegro's membership of NATO.

A critical review of a school textbook written by a historian and ruling Progressive Party member, Rados Ljusic, accuses it of insulting ethnic minorities and Serbia's neighbours.

More than 50 per cent of Serbians believe in their country's proclaimed policy of military neutrality, which implies that Serbia stays out of all military alliances, including NATO, according to new research published on Tuesday by the Belgrade-based Demostat research centre.

While Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic enjoys great popularity, many of those who do not support him also do not respect the opposition either.

"The democratic opposition is only democratic on paper. They don't value democracy in their ranks, or when they are in power," one disaffected voter, Jelena Babic, told BIRN.

Serbian opposition parties have rejected the proposition of the former Democratic Party president, Bojan Pajtic, to adopt a "radically different approach" to political struggle and boycott parliament, as they did during the era of President Slobodan Milosevic.