Political context

The President of Serbia and lead candidate of the Serbian Progressive Party in the parliamentary elections, Aleksandar Vučić, resigned as President of the Republic on 27 September, thereby triggering presidential elections that must be held no later than 27 December this year. The exact date of the presidential elections will be set by the acting Speaker of the National Assembly and acting President of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, who is required to call the presidential elections and set the date no later than 27 October. With his resignation as President, Aleksandar Vučić was left without any state or party office; this, however, did not change the actual state of affairs - he remains by a wide margin the most present actor in the media space, receiving every second second of the extended prime-time slot on broadcasters with national coverage.

None of the political actors nominated or announced a candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections during this period.

The start of the official election campaign was marked by the death of Ratko Mladić, sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war. The authorities in Serbia attempted another manoeuvre between a hard nationalist base and a declared pro-European orientation. The state organised the transport of Mladić's remains on a state aircraft; at the airport the coffin was carried by military personnel along a ceremonial carpet; the commemoration was held at the House of the Armed Forces; the funeral service was led by the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church; and as the coffin was lowered into the ground, uniformed personnel fired a salute. The governing party and President Vučić maintain, above all before international audiences, that this was not a funeral with state honours. Not one official and not one outlet close to the authorities recalled that Ratko Mladić was convicted because he had a leading and decisive role in four joint criminal enterprises the “overarching JCE”, which from May 1992 to November 1995 had as its objective the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from the territory claimed by Bosnian Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina; (ii) the Sarajevo JCE, which had as its objective the spreading of terror among the civilian population through a campaign of sniping and shelling from May 1992 to November 1995; (iii) the Srebrenica JCE, which had as its objective the elimination of the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica from July to at least October 1995; and (iv) the hostage-taking JCE, which had as its objective the capture of UN protection force personnel and UN military observers deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina and their detention at strategic military locations in order to prevent further air strikes by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (hereinafter: NATO) on Bosnian Serb military targets from May to June 1995, IRMCT press release, https://link.crta.rs/12k, 4 October 2026. that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the contrary, in most outlets he was presented as a hero who had been killed in The Hague, while the governing Serbian Progressive Party sought to create the appearance of distance from the funeral: President Vučić did not attend, and on the same day Prime Minister Macut submitted the request for the dissolution of the National Assembly - the formal step that is a precondition for calling early elections. In the period that followed, a number of local assemblies opened, on the initiative of Serbian Progressive Party councillors, with a minute of silence in honour of Ratko Mladić, which opposition councillors boycotted by walking out of the chamber. Supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party chanted Ratko Mladić's name in an organised manner before the party's campaign rally at the Belgrade Arena.

The funeral of Ratko Mladić in Belgrade, with state support and state infrastructure, brought the deterioration of relations between the European Union and Serbia to a head. The Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, cancelled a planned visit to Belgrade and her participation in a conference, with the unambiguous explanation that the glorification of war criminals is unacceptable. Other senior EU officials also condemned the role of the Serbian authorities in organising the funeral in very clear terms, in a joint statement by Commission President von der Leyen and Council President Costa. Contrary to earlier announcements, von der Leyen decided to leave Serbia (and Bosnia and Herzegovina) out of her customary tour of the Western Balkans. Commission officials and bodies refrained from any more detailed analysis or criticism of developments in Serbia, explaining that they did not wish to influence the election campaign and noting that the European Commission's annual report on Serbia's progress would be published at the end of October and would contain all assessments. The European People's Party (EPP), of which the Serbian Progressive Party is an associate member, broke a longer silence to comment on the internal process of evaluating the Serbian Progressive Party's membership over a possible departure from fundamental values. The EPP also postponed the publication of its decision until after the elections in Serbia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave open support to Aleksandar Vučić, saying he hoped Vučić would be Serbia's next prime minister. The Russian ambassador in Belgrade continued to make statements about a “colour revolution” from the West, further fuelling a narrative that outlets close to the authorities, together with some officials, have long been building in Serbia, with the aim of demonising the European Union and pro-European actors in society. Besides Putin, Vučić was also supported by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who despite announcements did not address the Serbian Progressive Party's pre-election rally in Belgrade in person, but sent a letter of support.