Serbia goes to the polls in a general election on Sunday, April 24. As Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic wants Serbia in the European Union, its old ally Russia is pulling it eastwards, Kerry Skyring reports from Belgrade.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic called for the vote two years before it was due, saying he needed a mandate to prepare the country for European Union membership. Polls indicate he will remain in power, but his campaign to have Serbia join EU is struggling, while pro-Russian sentiment is rising.
Sociologist Jovo Bakic, an expert on Europe's nationalist movements, says that "Serbian Radical Party is quite an example".
"Vojislav Seselj openly states that these elections are elections between the EU and Russia and the only party that could fight for closer Serbian relations with Russia is the Serbian Radical Party."
Nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj , who founded the Serbian Radical Party, told his supporters at a recent rally of the party that "Serbia have to get back to the bosom of Mother Russia".
"She never bombed us, never stood us up, and is strong and powerful again," Seselj said.
Not long ago, PM Vucic, who now says he wants Serbia in the EU, was a nationalist like Vojislav Seselj. At the age of 24, he became secretary general of the Serbian Radical Party.
Jelena Milic, director of the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies in Serbia, claims that Vucic is using the nationalists for political gain.
"Vucic gave, deliberately, room and (re)sources and media time to the extreme right, newly emerging extreme right, to threaten the rest of us here and the West that he is the only alternative," Milic said.
Veteran Serb journalist and political analyst Dejan Anastasijevic says the European Union is spending more money in Serbia but losing the propaganda war against Russia.
"When people are asked which country is financially and economically helping Serbia the most, a big majority of people will say that it's Russia. However, when you look at the figures, you see that Russia actually gave us almost nothing and about 80 per cent of the financial and economic aid comes from the EU," Anastasijevic said.
The pro-EU Aleksandar Vucic looks certain to take his Serbian Progressive Party to a convincing win on April the 24th. But his goal of moving Serbia to the West faces a powerful challenge from the East...
