Serbia's pro-EU Progressives returned to power

BELGRADE, Serbia

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has declared victory in Serbia’s general election, with Monday’s count showing his Progressive Party winning the largest share of the vote.

With 83 percent of votes counted, unofficial results showed the Progressives on 48 percent and their Socialist Party coalition partners with 11 percent. The far-right Radical Party, whose leader Vojislav Seselj was last month acquitted of war crimes at The Hague, took nearly 8 percent votes.

Vucic called the election halfway through his term to give him the mandate to implement the reforms needed to help Serbia’s EU accession bid.

“The election results today represent a strong support to our democracy, reforms and European integration,” Vucic told supporters at party headquarters in Belgrade on Sunday night. “We have shown to ourselves and the world that Serbia is united in an attempt for a better future.”

Seselj opposes Serbia’s turn to the west and favors closer ties with Russia, Serbia’s traditional ally.

Around 53 percent of Serbia’s 6.7 million voters cast ballots on Sunday as 20 parties competed for 250 seats in the National Assembly.

The opposition Democratic Party took 6 percent of votes, just passing the 5 percent parliamentary threshold.

Two parties from Serbia's Sandzak region, where Muslims constitute the majority, failed to pass the threshold.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and EU Commissioner for European Enlargement Johannes Hahn congratulated Vucic. “A strong government can drive the reforms that are necessary and good for the future of the country, its economy and its citizens”, Hahn said in a Twitter post.