Reuters. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Saturday (August 27) nominated Ana Brnabic to serve another term as prime minister and to lead a new government through a time of military conflict in Europe, global energy and inflation crises and tensions with Kosovo.
The nomination came more than five months after their party, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), won the most votes in a national election. The formal announcement of results was delayed by voting irregularities at one polling station, preventing parliament from being convened.
Vucic also said the new government would face a major overhaul in 2024, two years before the end of its mandate, but did not elaborate.
"It is important that she remains prime minister so we can continue to work diligently and solve problems for fall and winter," Vucic told reporters.
Vucic, who leads the SNS and wields considerable influence over government policies, said he had "limitless trust" in Brnabic, 46, Serbia's first female premier.
Brnabic is expected to present a new cabinet and policy programme to parliament in the coming weeks. One of her main tasks on the world stage will be to balance Serbia's candidacy to join the European Union, its biggest trading partner, with pressures to preserve ties with Russia and China.
Serbia is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas and has bought weapons from Russia, while China is a major investor.
Although Serbia has condemned Russia's special military operation in Ukraine at the United Nations, it refused to join sanctions against Moscow.
Both Beijing and Moscow support Serbia's opposition to the independence of Kosovo, Belgrade's former southern province. Vucic said that talks over the status of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo mediated by the EU and the United States had failed to ease tensions between Serbia and Kosovo - fueled by a dispute over car number plates and personal documents.
