Serbian elections winner 'clearly seek better relations' with the EU, says expert

A political earthquake in Serbia and potentially the end of an era. After years of protests, mounting anger over corruption and growing opposition to President Aleksandar Vučić, last Sunday's parliamentary elections have delivered a stunning upset, with the student-led opposition emerging victorious. But bringing down an entrenched political establishment is one thing, governing a deeply divided country is quite another. So is Serbia finally turning a page? Joining me now is Marko Preleć, senior Western Balkans analyst with the International Crisis Group. Good morning and thanks for being with us. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here. So the student movement united people from very different political backgrounds. Now that their common enemy is gone, what is holding them together? That really remains to be seen. I mean, I think the most important thing to keep in mind about the student movement is it is not a political party in any sense this is really a totally unprecedented thing the people that won um none of them are a none of them are professional politicians that was one of the criteria for being uh listed on the the student movement's uh campaign list there's no there's there's no single leader there's no charismatic figure they really won the elections purely on the strength of their promise to turn the page after 14 years of the government of President Vučić. Serbians voted for change, obviously, particularly an end to corruption. How quickly can the new leadership deliver and what happens if it fails? I think this will take a long time. I mean, there's a lot, you know, it is 14 years of an entrenched system to, first of all, understand and investigate and then dismantle and replace with something else. I think it's maybe premature to start worrying about what happens if they fail. They haven't even taken office yet. I think it's also likely that we overstate the extent to which the society is divided. A lot of people clung to President Vučić's party because of the patronage system. So as that is dismantled, quite a few of them will fall away, leaving a smaller ideologically committed core, as has happened with other parties in similar positions in the past. Brussels has welcomed the result, but is the EU celebrating too soon? I mean, do we actually know whether Serbia's new leaders want to bring the country closer to Europe? Well, they've said they do. They have been somewhat ambivalent about whether they mean that to mean eventual membership in the European Union or something, which is really under a question mark for a variety of reasons. But they clearly do seek better relations with the member states of the European Union and with the EU itself and with and constructive relations with their neighbors, which is also very important.