The Belgrade debacle of the two Alexanders: The first political crisis in the Vučić era

The stories of Aleksandar Vučić and Aleksandar Šapić that they have a "legal" majority in Belgrade, but that they will not form the government because they want the majority to be "even more legitimate" for moral reasons, are meaningless.

Either they cannot provide the two necessary flyovers from the opposition ranks, or feeling the pulse of Belgrade tells them that the formation of the city government under these conditions could cause an eruption of anger among the citizens of Belgrade that would spill over into the streets.

Or the envoys from Brussels, and possibly from Washington, twisted their hands so much that they are looking for a way out in repeating the Belgrade elections without acknowledging the election theft.

And that with the belief that they will maintain the advantage of manipulated voter lists and controlled media so that somehow, if they can, force the opposition into a boycott or some other misstep.

Vučić has masterfully mastered the game of wearing out the opponent and recklessly buying time, during which he closes his own lines and targets the opponent's weak points.

Postponing the constituent session of the Belgrade Assembly to March 1 is undoubtedly a victory for "Serbia against violence" and the NADA coalition. It is also significant that they are performing together, no matter how much they are criticized in the regime media that, so ideologically different, they are united only by "hatred of Vučić" and "desire to plunder".

But they must not stop there.

Political crisis

First, the Assembly of Serbia was constituted in 37 minutes, but then, due to the noisy protest of the opposition MPs, it was more or less postponed until further notice without the election of the Speaker of the Parliament. Now, due to impotence, the constituent session of the Belgrade Assembly has been postponed.

That is why, for the first time since Vučić came to power in 2012, one can truly speak of a political crisis.

For the time being, the attempts of the authorities to impose the image that everything was in the best order during the elections, that it was the end of the story and that we have moved on, are not going away - neither in the country, nor outside it.

And this is where the decisive battle will be fought: the opposition must find a way to inflame the existing mini-crisis and not allow the country to return to "normal", for fraudulent electoral acts to pass just like that, and their perpetrators go unpunished, because otherwise the electoral process will to be completely meaningless for a long time. From the phase of autocracy, one would enter the form of dictatorship.

"Serbia against violence" and the NADA coalition would now have to play it all or nothing and look for more allies on the political scene and in society.

For Serbia, this is a turning point: the question is who will break whose hand in this hand-wringing, and the consequences will be permanent.