New Government’s programme: EU path without EU values
After more than four months since the election, Serbia got a new government – “government of continuity”, as we heard from the new Prime Minister Miloš Vučević. His cabinet consists of both familiar and new faces from the Serbian political scene – former ministers, ambassadors, and even officials under US sanctions. Everyone unites behind a more conservative programme that prioritises weapons over democracy and tradition over human rights, but also keeps “Serbia on the European path” with its “traditional friends” – Russia and China.
After two days of deliberation, the Serbian Assembly voted for the new Government of Miloš Vučević. Before the vote, Vučević presented his programme, as well as the 31 ministers who, barring extraordinary circumstances, would hold executive power until 2028. Vučević presented their names after delivering his keynote address to the members of the Serbian Assembly.
New Prime Minister particularly emphasised the military, armaments, reintroduction of mandatory military service, soldier standards, equipment, the concept of “total defence”, defence industry, and investments. After the topic of strengthening the defence system, which, as Vučević stated, aims to preserve peace and stability, the issue of Kosovo came next.
“The greatest challenge in the upcoming period will undoubtedly be defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country in the international arena, i.e., the struggle for our Kosovo and Metohija”, Vučević said, also mentioning “brutal violations of international law”, the fight against Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe, Pristina’s “tyrant” and the “demonic intentions” of the Kosovo authorities.
Further highlighting Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe as a challenge, Vučević also noted that Serbia is in this situation “a victim of a political response, part of the collective West’s response to the situation in Ukraine”. Previously, also in the context of relations with the West, the new Prime Minister pointed that “full membership in the EU remains a strategic goal of the Republic of Serbia”, but that this commitment does not imply that Serbia is willing to neglect further development of relations with “traditional friends”.
“Despite the conflicting views of many in the West, for us, China represents a friendly state, a benevolent partner, and a reliable ally in defence of our territorial integrity, and our position towards the policy of One China will not change”, Vučević emphasised, adding:
“Serbia cannot and will not give up its friendship with Russia, whose people we consider fraternal, just as we do with Ukrainians. Friendship is shown and proven in difficult times. Although today we may not be able to practically help our Russian friends, we will certainly not harm them in any way.”
Specifically highlighting that Serbia expresses disagreement with the policy of sanctions against the Russian Federation and does not want to join that policy, Vučević also stated that “there is no doubt that pressure on Serbia to change its policy towards this war conflict will continue and likely intensify”. Vučević then devoted a few words to maintaining good relations with America.
Besides Serbia’s foreign policy course and improving citizens’ standard of living, the new Prime Minister also spoke about traditional family values. He positioned women as symbols of “renewal, birth”, equating them with “beings most similar to God”. It was clear from the keynote address that the new government will adhere to the position of marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and that same-sex marriages will not be legally regulated.
Vučević spoke very briefly about democracy, underscoring his belief in “the change of power” and distinguishing between opposition to the government, not “opposition to the state”. The new Prime Minister initially presented himself to opposition representatives as a “partner for discussion and agreement”, but then introduced a caveat.
“But, if ideas of violence promoted by the opposition, inspired by hatred towards one man, the President of the Republic, and his family, if the state is being undermined on the streets by undemocratic methods, then don’t even think about my partnership”, Vučević stated in his keynote address. By doing so, he placed democracy in the background, and pushed the fight against crime and corruption even further down the list of priorities.
This Vučević’s programme will follow the names that are already well known to the public. Among them are those who retained their ministries, those who returned to them after just a few years, and others who simply moved from one seat to another. For example, Bratislav Gašić moved to the Ministry of Defence, while Ivica Dačić moved to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Returning to the government after a brief hiatus are Aleksandar Vulin, as deputy Prime Minister, and Nenad Popović, as Minister without portfolio. Vulin and Popović are both under US sanctions, are known for their strong affinity towards Moscow, and publicly advocate exclusively pro-Russian stances.
Aleksandar Vulin, former director of the Serbian Intelligence Agency (BIA) and leader of the Socialist Party, has long advocated the idea of the “Serbian world”. In January 2024, Vulin received two awards from Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him with the Order of Friendship, while the Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia awarded him with the Order for Exceptional Professionalism and Contribution to Cooperation between Serbian and Russian services.
Minister without portfolio and president of the Serbian People’s Party, Nenad Popović, also maintains an extremely close relationship with Russia. As reported by the Russian media in March, Popović, serving as an international observer of Russian elections, assessed that “the organisation of elections in Russia is the best in the world” and that “Serbia will never impose anti-Russian sanctions”.
Opposing sanctions against Russia is also Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, a former opposition politician and the new Minister for Family Care and Demography. In the December 2023 election campaign, Đurđević Stamenkovski, as the leader of the Serbian Party Oathkeepers, was in the opposition ranks, using nationalist and anti-Western rhetoric and opposing the Franco-German plan for Kosovo.
Đurđević Stamenkovski reiterated her anti-Western positions just days before officially being appointed as Minister for Family Care.
“The wave of decadence coming from the West aims to completely disintegrate the family, to relativise it, and to exclude it as the most important cell of our society, as the foundation that has survived even when we didn’t have a state – we had a stable family that initiate great things”, Đurđević Stamenkovski stated.
Alongside Vulin, Popović, and Đurđević Stamenkovski, there are other right-leaning figures such as the new Minister of Culture, Nikola Selaković, who has held top state positions for years and is considered very close to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
With each new exposé, the European integration of Serbia is gaining less and less importance. Similar to his predecessor, Ana Brnabić, who prioritised Serbia’s EU membership as a strategic goal in her initial address in 2017, Vučević echoed this objective. However, he did it in such a way that the accession process itself was presented in a negative tone. The new Prime Minister underpinned “the burden of the newly introduced criteria”, “fatigue from enlargement”, thus shifting the responsibility for the stagnation to negotiations with the EU. Positive tones remained only in a few sentences about economic cooperation with the EU.