Macut government: confidence vote pushed to autumn
The confidence vote on Djordje Macut's government looks set to be deferred to autumn 2026, with SNS counting on parliamentary elections to reshape the chamber before then.
- The confidence vote on Djordje Macut's government looks set to be deferred to autumn 2026.
- The reason is the expectation that parliamentary elections will be called before then.
- SNS reckons the vote would lose its point if the chamber is recomposed by elections.
- The opposition says the move shields the prime minister from accountability before MPs.
The confidence vote on the Government of Serbia, led by Prime Minister Djordje Macut, looks set to be deferred to autumn 2026, sources close to parliamentary coordination say. Only after parliamentary elections are called, and a possible new chamber convened, is the confidence question expected to return to the agenda.
The Government formally took office in March, after the previous prime minister resigned. Under the Assembly’s rules of procedure, a confidence vote can be requested by the prime minister or by at least 40 MPs, a step the opposition flagged at the end of April.
Why the deferral
The Serbian Progressive Party and allied caucuses argue that a confidence vote in the current chamber would lose its point if elections are called in autumn. Sources close to SNS say a new chamber could elect a new government on election results, making a vote in the current chamber politically redundant.
National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabic said earlier this month that the confidence debate must follow MPs’ requests and that there are no grounds for prejudging the timing. Under the rules, the speaker convenes the session within at least seven days of a qualifying request.
Opposition response
The pro-European opposition, which gathered more than 40 signatures for a confidence session at the end of April, calls the deferral a form of shielding the prime minister from direct parliamentary scrutiny. They argue that, particularly amid the Senjak case, the government must prove its legitimacy in parliament.
Representatives of the Democratic Party, the Freedom and Justice Party and the Green-Left Front cite three reasons for urgency:
- to test the political credibility of the government after the Veselin Milic arrest
- to review Serbia’s preparation for the Tivat summit and EU talks
- to clarify the government’s role in gas talks with Russia
A government in a transitional mandate cannot bypass parliamentary scrutiny under the pretext of upcoming elections, because it would mean running the country in a caretaker mode for five months without real accountability before MPs, the joint opposition caucus statement reads.
Political backdrop
The Djordje Macut government was formed after the parliamentary crisis of January and February 2026 and took office in March, with programme priorities on economic growth, investment and the EU dialogue. The government has not had an extraordinary parliamentary debate on its programme, which the opposition flags as a procedural gap.
Boban Stojanovic, a political scientist, said the deferral is consistent with Serbian parliamentary practice in caretaker-style mandates, but that ahead of elections it opens space for opposition arguments about government opacity.
What comes before the elections are called
The National Assembly will in the coming weeks continue working through the agenda adopted in May. After the electoral laws are passed, the Macut government is expected to propose several legislative changes in energy and education, partly answering opposition demands for a confidence debate.
President Aleksandar Vucic has not yet set out a calendar for calling the elections, but has repeatedly said they will be held in autumn 2026, between September and mid-November.
Will the confidence vote take place before the elections are called, or will it be deferred indefinitely?
