SNS Assembly on December 13: Vucevic Nominates Vucic

The Main Board of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) decided on Saturday, October 31, to hold an extraordinary party assembly on December 13, where a new leadership and new party bodies will be elected. SNS president Milos Vucevic told the session that he will propose Aleksandar Vucic as the new president. Vucic led the party from 2012 until May 27, 2023.

The session took place in the morning at the Belgrade Arena, according to Srbija Danas. Vucevic said 657 members of the Main Board were present. Novosti and Beta reported that the agenda had four items: the minutes of the previous session, convening the extraordinary assembly, an analysis of the election results and the political situation, and “any other business.”

What exactly was decided, and how?

Vucevic put forward the proposal to convene the assembly under Article 27 of the SNS Statute. He justified it by the state of the party over the past two years and by the will of voters expressed in the October 25 elections. According to B92, the decision passed with no votes against and no abstentions. Board members backed the proposal with applause, and Vucevic declared it adopted by acclamation. He then called on the responsible party bodies to start preparing for the assembly.

He worded his proposal this way:

“As SNS president, I propose to you, members of the Main Board, that we adopt a decision to convene an extraordinary session of the SNS assembly for December 13, where we will elect the new party leadership and prepare the party for the period ahead of us.”

Vucevic then said he would personally nominate Vucic: “I will propose Aleksandar Vucic as the new president of the Serbian Progressive Party.” He added: “It is time for a new page in the life and work of our party.” On the party’s standing, he said: “We are the only political party that survived the colored revolution.”

Earlier, Vucic had announced changes in the SNS, but with no assembly date and no name for the party’s top post. Now both are known.

What did Vucic say in his address?

Vucic spoke under the third agenda item, the analysis of the election result. He organized his remarks around three keywords: responsibility, change and struggle. He assessed the election result like this:

“Electoral defeat is part of life, and there is no one in a democratic society who does not lose matches.”

He tied the party’s changes to the conduct of its officials: “The fight against arrogance and haughtiness is something we must change.” He also announced that he will address his own failings at the December assembly: “I will list all of my mistakes at the party assembly.”

Vucic laid out several practical demands and announcements at the session:

• the SNS, by his account, has 104 members of parliament, enough to request extraordinary sessions of the National Assembly
• municipal and local committees should meet every week
• before the assembly, a plan should be prepared to relaunch the councils for health, the economy, agriculture and other areas
• the party will use money from its account, saved from membership fees, to help Serbs, including in Kosovo and Metohija and the four municipalities in the north

On money he said: “We have plenty of money in the account, and we have saved plenty from membership fees.” On Kosovo and Metohija: “We will have to help the people in Kosovo and Metohija, because until now the state did that.”

He closed the address with a message to party members: “I am ready for the fight. And I will fight as long as I breathe.”

Claims about Nis with no response from institutions

At the session, Vucic also described an event from the previous evening: police entering a television station in Nis on the prosecutor’s order and detaining L. A., the son of the station’s editor-in-chief. According to Vucic, police acted on a tip that L. A. had entered with a rifle, while he was, Vucic claims, carrying a camera and a tripod. These are Vucic’s claims. No response from the prosecutor’s office or the police appeared in the reports we read.

Vucic also said he would leave the session early because he was expecting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at his home. After his address, the session was closed to the public.

What comes next before December 13?

A little over six weeks remain until the assembly. The date is set, the proposed candidate for party president is known, and the Main Board’s decision was unanimous. Who will make up the new leadership, and which bodies the assembly will elect, was not specified in the available reports from the session.