Serbia’s Progressive Party pledged to form a new government by May 1 after winning an outright parliamentary majority in an election on a pledge to fight graft, fix the economy and join the European Union by 2020. The party, led by Aleksandar Vucic, who forced the ballot two years earlier than scheduled, won 48.3 percent, more than polls predicted, Serbia’s Election Commission said today. Vucic will get 158 of the chamber’s 250 seats, while Prime Minister Ivica Dacic’s Socialist Party received 13.5 percent, for 44 seats, according to preliminary results. Vucic said he will consult with President Tomislav Nikolic and three other parties that made it into parliament. Vucic, who was once an ally of late Balkan strongman Slobodan Milosevic, pledged to embrace painful austerity measures endorsed by the International Monetary Fund and lead Serbia into the EU two decades after the bloody Balkan civil wars. He said he will “extend a hand” to other parties before forming his administration.
“There is no time to wait,” Vucic told state TV broadcaster RTS. Changes are to be expected both among people from his own party as well as “among some coalition partners, if there will be any.”
The yield on Serbia’s 2021 dollar bond fell 13 basis points, or 0.13 percentage point, to 5.46 percent at 12:15 p.m. today in Belgrade, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The main index of 15 most actively traded stocks, Belex15, dropped 0.13 percent to 568.93 points, while the dinar was unchanged at 115.9515 per euro.
Full Article: Serb Progressives Prepare to Form Cabinet After Election Win (3) – Businessweek.