Summary of the day
Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling SNS party won Serbia’s snap parliamentary election.
Preliminary results put SNS on 46%, while the opposition coalition Serbia Against Violence took 23%.
There were reports of irregularities. An international observation mission said the election took place in “unjust conditions”. It noted that “instances of serious irregularities, including vote-buying and ballot box stuffing, were observed.”
Opposition politicians raised serious concerns about irregularities in Belgrade, where Vučić’s critics were hoping to do well in local elections.
Vladimir Obradović, the opposition coalition’s candidate for Belgrade mayor, said that “the campaign was unfair in all aspects from the beginning till the election day”. He said the results in Belgrade “do not represent the free will of the Belgrade citizens” and he demanded new elections.
An opposition protest is expected in Belgrade this evening.
The European Council president, Charles Michel, called a special leaders’ summit for 1 February.
The Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, visited the Hungarian leadership in Budapest.
Updated
Belgrade election must be repeated, mayoral candidate says
Vladimir Obradović, the opposition coalition Serbia Against Violence’s candidate for Belgrade mayor, said today that “the campaign was unfair in all aspects from the beginning till the election day”.
“Pressure on voters, buying votes, voters from other areas and even countries are only some of the irregularities that were observed and reported by independent monitoring missions,” he told the Guardian in an email.
He added:
Results of the elections in Belgrade do not represent the free will of the Belgrade citizens, and we cannot accept them. We demand new elections with fair conditions for all parties involved.
Updated
International observers find Serbia's election held under 'unjust conditions'
Serbia’s elections took place under “unjust conditions,” international observers said on Monday, one day after Aleksandar Vučić’s populist ruling party declared victory.
In a statement, an international observation mission said the “early parliamentary elections, though technically well-administered and offering voters a choice of political alternatives, were dominated by the decisive involvement of the president, which together with the ruling party’s systemic advantages created unjust conditions”.
The mission, which includes representatives from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the European parliament and the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, also concluded that “fundamental freedoms were generally respected in the campaign, but it was marred by harsh rhetoric, bias in the media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public resources”.
Concerns were also raised about polling places:
Instances of serious irregularities, including vote-buying and ballot box stuffing, were observed. Measures for ensuring vote secrecy were insufficient.
Updated
EU leaders to meet on 1 February
European Council president Charles Michel has called a special leaders’ summit for 1 February.
This comes after the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, last week blocked an agreement on a revised EU budget and new €50bn package for Ukraine.
European Council President @CharlesMichel has announced that a special #EUCO summit will take place on 1 February 2024. https://t.co/cDg1pu1v1S
— Ecaterina Casinge (@ecasinge) December 18, 2023
Updated
“The elections were dominated by the decisive involvement of the president, which, together with ruling party’s systemic advantages, did create unjust conditions for the contestants in this election,” said Albert Jónsson, the head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) mission.
Speaking at the international election observation mission’s press conference following Serbia’s elections, he said:
Let me also stress that while fundamental freedoms are generally respected in the campaign, it was marked by harsh rhetoric, bias in the media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public resources.
Slovenian MEP Klemen Grošelj, who heads the European parliament’s delegation, said at the press conference of the international election observer mission in Serbia that the mission received several reports of massive votes cast in Belgrade by voters from abroad and from other municipalities inside Serbia.
He called on the competent authorities to investigate properly.
The Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, an independent civil society group which has been observing Serbia’s election, said today that the scope of irregularities in Belgrade means that the election outcome in the capital does not reflect the view of voters.
Considering the scope and diversity of electoral abuses in Belgrade we conclude that the results of the Belgrade elections do not reflect the freely expressed will of voters living in Belgrade.
Irregularities that directly compromised election results were recorded at five percent of polling stations in Parliamentary elections and at nine percent of polling stations in the Belgrade elections.
Updated
Stefan Schennach, another Austrian parliamentarian and head of the delegation representing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said at the international electoral observation mission’s press conference that the assembly had on several occasions raised concerns about the “instrumentalism” of the electoral cycle.
We are concerned about the frequent and early elections, he said.
Another concern is the role played by the president, who was not a candidate, but his name was used and had an overwhelming presence in the media, providing his party with “an undue advantage.”
This undermines fairness, he said.
He pointed to very serious problems and allegations about the election that must be addressed and investigated.
Updated
Reinhold Lopatka, an Austrian parliamentarian who serves as the special co-ordinator of the OSCE short-term observer mission in Serbia, said at a press conference said that though the election was technically well-administrated, there were “unjust conditions.”
Fundamental freedoms were generally respected, but it was mired by harsh rhetoric, bias in the media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public resources, he said.
Election day was marked by procedural problems, including breaches in secretary of the votes and numerous instances of group voting, he added.
Lopatka described an uneven playing field for contestants.
The international election observation mission in Serbia will soon hold a press conference.
Stay tuned.
The populist Serbian Progressive party (SNS) has said it won the country’s snap parliamentary election, which has been marred by reports of significant irregularities.
Watch footage of government and opposition figures make their case.
Erdoğan arrives in Hungary
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has arrived in Budapest to meet Hungary’s leadership.
The relationship between Turkey and Hungary is closely watched in the west, in part because the two countries have been delaying Sweden’s accession to Nato.
President Erdogan @RTErdogan , welcome to Hungary! This is the second time the President is visiting Hungary this year and the third time we are meeting in person, which clearly shows the good relations between #Hungary 🇭🇺 and #Türkiye 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/ntcLkoJWpa
— Katalin Novák (@KatalinNovak_HU) December 18, 2023
Updated
What's new in Serbia's election?
We asked Florian Bieber, director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, about the significance of yesterday’s elections in Serbia.
One thing that is significant is the level of irregularities that was noticed … we’ll need to get a full investigation, but the large numbers of voters which were apparently bused to Belgrade, to vote especially in the local elections, is something we haven’t seen on that scale before.
And that suggests a very systematic effort of the government to ensure it gets a majority in Belgrade. So this is something which is certainly noteworthy. I mean, there’s been manipulation in the past but this seems to be more serious.
He also noted that there appears to be no clear majority in Belgrade.
Even if it’s not clear that the opposition will be strong enough to actually be able to form a government, but at least it suggests that there’s a genuine weakness in Belgrade.
Bieber also pointed out the ruling SNS party’s stronger than expected performance on a national level.
I think nobody doubted that they would win the elections, but nobody expected that they would improve on the result of last year by such a margin.
Updated
Hungary’s president has congratulated Aleksandar Vučić and his party on a “great” victory. The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, already congratulated Serbia’s leader yesterday on an “overwhelming election victory.”
The governments in Budapest and Belgrade maintain a close relationship.
Congratulations to @avucic and his party on their great election victory in Serbia yesterday. I also congratulate on the good results of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians. I am pleased that they have kept their representation in the Parliament in Belgrade. Serbia is an example…
— Katalin Novák (@KatalinNovak_HU) December 18, 2023
#Serbia will not stop! Congratulations to President @avucic and members of his list on their overwhelming election victory!
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) December 17, 2023
Updated
Lithuania and Germany sign plan for troop deployment
Arvydas Anušauskas, Lithuania’s defence minister, said today that the main units of a German army brigade that is moving to Lithuania will start to arrive in 2025, after an initial team in 2024, Reuters reported.
The minister also said the brigade would reach full fighting readiness in 2027.
The plan is part of Nato efforts to boost defences of the alliance’s eastern edge.
Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, is visiting Lithuania today.
The two ministers signed a roadmap outlining a deployment plan.
Glad to host my 🇩🇪 colleague Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and sign a roadmap outlining the intentions of both countries regarding the deployment of the 🇩🇪 brigade in 🇱🇹 and subsequent steps for its full deployment. #Bundeswehr #BrigadeLTU pic.twitter.com/W1TsgVxwdG
— Arvydas Anušauskas (@a_anusauskas) December 18, 2023
Updated
AfD candidate wins city mayor race in Germany for first time
Tim Lochner, a candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, won a mayoral race yesterday in Pirna, a town in Saxony.
His victory marks the first time a candidate for AfD won a city mayoral race.
Lochner, an independent who ran on an AfD ticket, won 38.5% of the vote in the second round of the race.
A candidate for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came second with 31.4%.
On Friday, the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced that it classified the AfD association in Saxony as a rightwing extremist organisation.
Updated
CDU seeks to win back German voters with its own Rwanda asylum plan
Germany’s opposition conservatives are seeking to win back voters with a sweeping change to the country’s immigration and asylum policy, including plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Jens Spahn, a leading member of the Christian Democrats (CDU), said at the weekend that his party was in favour of the transportation of future refugees to third countries for processing of asylum applications such Ghana and Rwanda in Africa, or to non-EU European countries such as Moldova and Georgia.
“If we did this and kept it up consequently for four, six, eight weeks, we would see the numbers [claiming asylum] reduce dramatically,” said Spahn, who is vice parliamentary leader of the CDU.
Spahn was defending a 70-page position paper presented by the CDU last Monday, in which the party said if in government it would propose limiting the number of asylum seekers coming to Germany, and move those who entered the EU to “safe third countries” where their applications would be processed.
The CDU has made no secret of its aims to win back voters from the far-right nationalist AfD, which is running second in opinion polls, citing migration, alongside inflation, as the top issue for many Germans that are likely to dominate campaigns for regional elections next year and the federal election expected to take place in autumn 2025.
Spahn called third countries “safe harbours” that “would fulfil the terms and conditions of the UN refugee convention”.
Read the full story here.
Updated
Here are some pictures from yesterday’s election in Serbia.
Updated
Serbia's opposition calls a protest over Belgrade vote
Serbia’s opposition is planning a protest this evening, amid allegations of irregularities in yesterday’s parliamentary and local elections.
An opposition coalition, Serbia Against Violence, had hoped to do well in the Belgrade city council election. There are now allegations that people who do not reside in the capital were transported there to vote, and the opposition says the results in Belgrade should be annulled and a repeat election held.
“It is completely clear that in Belgrade the opposition parties received more votes than the parties that have represented the government in the capital! We will defend the electoral will of the citizens!” said the Party of Freedom and Justice, part of the opposition coalition.
Pozivamo građane na protest u 18h ispred Gradske skupštine. pic.twitter.com/1F8gVrU5qn
— Stranka slobode i pravde (@SlobodaIPravda) December 18, 2023
Serbia's ruling party set to win parliamentary election amid irregularity reports
President Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling SNS party has claimed victory in Sunday’s early parliamentary election, amid concerns about widespread reports of irregularities.
Early results put the SNS – which appeared on the ballot as “Aleksandar Vučić – Serbia must not stop!” at about 46%.
An opposition alliance, Serbia Against Violence, is at about 23%.
Updated
Welcome to the blog
Good morning and welcome back to the Europe blog.
Send comments and tips to lili.bayer@theguardian.com.
