{"id":28206,"date":"2014-05-14T14:11:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eliamep.lncdoo.com\/oi-koinovouleftikes-ekloges-tou-martiou-2014-sti-servia\/"},"modified":"2024-08-28T11:04:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T08:04:56","slug":"oi-koinovouleftikes-ekloges-tou-martiou-2014-sti-servia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/oi-koinovouleftikes-ekloges-tou-martiou-2014-sti-servia\/","title":{"rendered":"ELIAMEP Briefing Notes 31\/ 2014: The March 2014 Parliamentary Elections in Serbia and their Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The March 2014 snap parliamentary elections in Serbia were called on the initiative of the Serbian Progressive Party
\n(SNS), the largest party in the Serbian Parliament, less than two years after they formed a government with their main\u00a0coalition partner, Prime Minister Ivica Da\u010di\u0107\u2019s Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). The Progressives based this decision on\u00a0the grounds that the government needed a fresh mandate for carrying out the difficult reforms following the\u00a0country\u2019s road towards EU membership – a goal which became more realistic after the EU decided to open accession\u00a0negotiations with Serbia in January 2014.
\nHowever, it was also in the interest of the SNS to capitalise on the increased popular support for the party (which,
\ndepending on different opinion polls, amounted between 42 and 45 percent), and translate it into parliamentary seats.\u00a0The greatest support in the party\u2019s history had been secured primarily by virtue of its charismatic leader, Aleksandar\u00a0Vu\u010di\u0107. Formally holding the post of the first Deputy Prime Minister, but in reality acting and perceived as the Prime\u00a0Minister himself, Vu\u010di\u0107 has taken most of the credit for Serbia\u2019s achievements in the fight against corruption and\u00a0organized crime, as well as for the historical progress the country has made in regard to its EU integration process.\u00a0Given the favourable polls and popularity of the SNS leader, the balance of power among the Serbian ruling parties has\u00a0significantly changed compared to 2012 when the Socialists were so integral to the government\u2019s formation that they\u00a0were able to demand the Prime Minister\u2019s office. Thus, the Progressives calculated that holding early parliamentary\u00a0elections at this moment would most certainly mean bringing the Premiership to their own ranks.
\nWith the opposition in Serbia being weak and disorganized, it was hard to imagine any scenario other than one where\u00a0the Progressives would win the majority in the parliament and appoint their leader as a new head of the government.\u00a0This made the results of the March 2014 elections one of the most predictable in recent Serbian political history. What\u00a0could not be precisely predicted, however, was that these elections would have the capacity to represent a potential\u00a0milestone for important transformations of the Serbian political landscape.<\/p>\n

Authors<\/strong>:\u00a0Maja Maksimovic –\u00a0Research Assistant, South-East Europe Programme, ELIAMEP, Greece
\nDr. Ioannis Armakolas,\u00a0\u201cStavros Costopoulos\u201d Research Fellow & Head of South-East Europe Programme, ELIAMEP, Greece<\/p>\n

ELIAMEP Briefing Notes 31\/ 2014<\/strong>: The March 2014 Parliamentary Elections in Serbia\u00a0and their Legacy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The March 2014 snap parliamentary elections in Serbia were called on the initiative of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the largest party in the Serbian Parliament, less than two years after they formed a government with their main\u00a0coalition partner, Prime Minister Ivica Da\u010di\u0107\u2019s Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). The Progressives based this decision on\u00a0the grounds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[492,102],"tags":[220],"program":[23],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28206"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44670,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28206\/revisions\/44670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28206"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=28206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}