Vucic Names List 'United Serbia,' Runs Without Office
The president named the ruling coalition list 'United Serbia' on TV Informer and said he will run in the parliamentary campaign without office, calling the opposition list tragicomic.
- Around 1:45 p.m., Vucic named the ruling list "United Serbia" for the first time during a phone-in on TV Informer.
- He said he will run in the parliamentary campaign without office, citing presidential duties abroad in September.
- At a rally in Vladimirovac he promised a Belgrade to Vrsac highway, lower drug prices from August 1 and new investment in southern Banat.
- He called the opposition list tragicomic and cited about 5,500 sign-ups on the "Who Are You" portal.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic named the ruling coalition’s electoral list for the first time on Saturday, ahead of the parliamentary elections. In a phone-in on TV Informer around 1:45 p.m., he said the list will be called “United Serbia” and announced that he will enter the campaign without holding state office.
Vucic explained that he has presidential duties abroad in September and will not be in the country the whole time, so, as he put it, he will appear in the campaign as a party figure rather than a head of state. “I do not need the apparatus, but the voice of an honest, ordinary man,” he said, describing his role in the election cycle now facing Serbia.
Hours later, at a rally in Vladimirovac in southern Banat, the president turned to specific pledges. He mentioned building a Belgrade to Vrsac highway, a drop in drug prices from August 1 and new investment in this part of the country. In tone, the speech was already a campaign address, with a string of promises aimed at the local electorate.
What running without office means
The decision to campaign without state office is not merely a technical matter. Vucic is president of the republic, and actively leading a campaign from that post has for years been a point of dispute with the opposition, which argues it erases the line between party and state. The phrase “without office” is therefore both a message to voters and an answer to that criticism, even though the party leadership he heads still stands behind the list.
The name “United Serbia” is expected to bring several partners of the current governing coalition under a single electoral roof. The president had signaled earlier that the list would not carry his name, a shift from previous cycles, when his surname was the centerpiece of the campaign offer.
According to the day’s announcements, the “Who Are You” portal, which the government uses to collect support, has so far received about 5,500 sign-ups. The authorities present that figure as a sign of mobilization, while the opposition disputes it.
How the opposition received the announcement
Vucic spared no words against his rivals. He called the opposition list tragicomic, and said the so-called Student List is made up of, in his words, incompetent parasites. Such sharp characterizations have marked his earlier addresses as well, and are part of a tone the ruling party does not hide ahead of the vote.
At the same time, he claimed that he had invited the opposition to dialogue and that it refused. The opposition, for its part, has said earlier that the offer of talks is false and serves only public consumption, with no real intention of reaching an agreement. These two readings of the same invitation remain unreconciled, and are likely to shape the first days of the campaign.
What the day’s moves make clear is that the governing coalition has entered a phase of clear electoral positioning, with a name for its list, a lead figure who formally stays to the side and a set of concrete promises for the interior. The opposition has yet to answer with a campaign frame of its own.
Will the “without office” formula convince voters that this is a party appearance rather than a state one by the president, or will the opposition turn it into the central point of its resistance?
