“THIS TIME, HE HAD NO REASON TO CELEBRATE”: The New York Times on Vučić’s unexpectedly swift admission of defeat!

The American newspaper The New York Times reported last night that Serbia’s longtime leader Aleksandar Vučić had conceded defeat in the parliamentary elections, but also noted certain similarities between his positions and those of the winning Student List on several important political issues, including relations with Russia and the European Union, and said that both sides were hoping for progress.

The elections were held after Vučić’s firm grip on power was weakened by two years of student-led protests, and the vote largely amounted to a referendum on Vučić himself, the longest-serving leader in Europe outside the former Soviet Union, the New York newspaper writes.

The newspaper notes that Serbia’s parliamentary elections took place just six months after voters in neighboring Hungary ousted populist nationalist leader Viktor Orbán, a close ally of Vučić.

“It is clear that we have lost this election,” The New York Times quoted Vučić as saying, noting that he delivered his speech surprisingly early, triggering jubilant celebrations by tens of thousands of mostly young people in central Belgrade.

Amid the sound of car horns and fireworks lighting up the sky, the gathered citizens welcomed a day that many had feared would never dawn, waving Serbian flags and cheering, the article says.

The newspaper also reports that, after numerous accounts of violence and irregularities at polling stations throughout the day, many feared that Vučić might follow the example of his former mentor Slobodan Milošević, who declared victory in the 2000 election before being forced to concede defeat following mass protests.

The New York Times also quotes former Montenegrin diplomat Ratko Knežević as saying that “what happened in Serbia tonight is not the electoral defeat of a government, but a tectonic shock to the political order established in 1987.” The newspaper recalls that Milošević made a promise that year in Kosovo to defend Serbs against ethnic Albanians.

“Milošević built an order in which all of Serbia’s neighbors became enemies and any criticism of the authorities was considered treason, and Vučić took that to perfection,” the newspaper quotes Knežević as saying.

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