Parliamentary elections in three South-Eastern European countries

• Main Author: Pavel Kandel’
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Institute of Europe Russian Academy of Sciences 2020-04-01
• Series: Научно-аналитический вестник Института Европы РАН
• Subjects: parliamentary elections; croatia; serbia; north macedonia; a. vucic; a. plenko- vic; z. zaev
• Online Access: http://vestnikieran.instituteofeurope.ru/images/Kandel42020.pdf

The paper examines the parliamentary elections in Croatia, Serbia and North Macedonia that took place during the summer of 2020. In all three cases, the authorities sought to quickly take advantage of the positive psychological effect of lifting the quarantine and appear as epidemic winners ahead of their electorates felt its economic consequences. Overall the ruling parties and their leaders achieved their goals – they did stay at control, but had to pay a high price for their success. In Croatia, the ruling Croatian Democratic Union and Prime Minister A. Plenkovich held power and did not allow a shift to the right-wing nationalist course many feared. However, the fragile majority that the former Prime Minister's new Cabinet is based on seems unlikely to allow him any resolute steps. The crushing victory of the Serbian Progressive Party which resulted in its constitutional majority and the absence of opposition in the Parliament proved to be pyrrhic for President A. Vucic. Enjoying full discretion, he seriously damaged already dubious legitimacy of the regime. This makes it both more compliant and cautious. The Social Democratic Union and its leader Z. Zaev in Northern Macedonia remained in power by renewing the deal with the Albanian parties, but became even more dependent on them. To conclude: the hard-fought victories have ensured the extention of power, but deprived it of essential political force.