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🇷🇸 Serbia /Elections & Politics

“Tik-tak”: Who is the clock counting down for? Vučić again skips Novi Sad as opposition says SNS cannot mobilize supporters

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Translated from Serbian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • A Serbian Progressive Party rally in Novi Sad was postponed for the eighth time, according to Istinomer, and President Aleksandar Vučić will not attend for now.
  • Opposition groups and student assemblies planned counter-rallies, recalling the 16 people killed when a station canopy collapsed.
  • Supporters and opponents offered sharply different explanations for the postponement, including security concerns and claims that SNS could not gather enough people.

The long-promised Serbian Progressive Party rally in Novi Sad will not take place on Friday after being postponed again, for the eighth time according to Istinomer. Aleksandar Vučić had said he would visit both Užice and Novi Sad. He went to Užice, but residents of Novi Sad will have to wait again.

The fact that they could not gather enough people through the companies is clear. They themselves breathed a sigh of relief that he did not come.

· Miran PogačarThe Bravo movement councillor claimed public-sector workers were expected to attend the postponed rally.

Mayor Žarko Mićin described the delay as evidence of Vučić’s statesmanship. Opposition representatives and local assemblies offered a different reading, saying the president was not welcome in a city still wounded by the deaths of 16 people in the collapse of a station canopy. Student groups and Novi Sad assemblies had scheduled counter-rallies with that message.

Miran Pogačar, a councillor from the Bravo movement, said the Serbian Progressive Party could not gather enough people through public companies. “The fact that they could not gather enough people through the companies is clear. They themselves breathed a sigh of relief that he did not come,” he said. Pogačar also argued that SNS lacked the support needed to hold a rally in Novi Sad.

The Serbian Progressive Party in Novi Sad does not have the support needed to hold a rally, let alone anything more.

· Miran PogačarHe argued that the governing party lacked sufficient backing in the city.

Mićin said a large welcome awaited Vučić, while the president estimated that 50,000 supporters would face only 500 demonstrators. Residents interviewed by N1 expressed divided views. Some called the cancellation welcome or said Vučić was not welcome, while others supported his policy, called the decision wise, or said he was always welcome. One resident suggested it might be “some kind of maneuver.”

He simply understood after Užice, after the mobilization of Novi Sad residents through the assemblies, social media and so on, that there is no place for him at this moment, and Novi Sad residents say never.

· Radomir DiklićThe Beta director explained his interpretation of the repeated postponement.

Beta agency director Radomir Diklić said the postponement showed Vučić had understood, after the Užice visit and the mobilization of Novi Sad residents through assemblies and social media, that there was no place for him in the city at this time. Mićin answered the “Tik-tak” countdown slogan by saying the clock might soon be counting down to the opposition and the elections.

The clock may soon start counting down for them, until the elections.

· Žarko MićinThe Novi Sad mayor responded to opposition “Tik-tak” countdown slogans.
About this summary

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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