Serbia’s Vucic names ally Vucevic as prime minister-designate

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Saturday nominated his close ally Milos Vucevic to become prime minister and lead a new government at a time of war in Europe and tensions with Kosovo.

The nomination comes more than three months after his party, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), won the most votes in the national election on December 17. Vucevic took over leadership of the party after Vucic stepped down last year.

“I propose to the Parliament Milos Vucevic as a candidate for Prime Minister of Serbia,” Vucic wrote on Instagram.

A lawyer by profession, Vucevic was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense in the government of his predecessor, Ana Brnabić.

The ruling party has 113 seats in the 250-seat parliament and will have to look for allies to form a government. The Socialists and the List of Vojvodina Hungarians, both traditional partners of the SNS, have 13 and six representatives respectively.

Vucevic is expected to form a government in the coming weeks. It will face a difficult task in balancing Serbia’s relations with Russia and China against its aspirations to join the European Union.

Although Serbia, which has candidate status for EU membership, has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations, it has refused to join in with sanctions against Moscow.

The government must also resolve issues with the country’s former province of Kosovo, which is seen as crucial to progress in EU membership talks.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekulrac; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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