Vucic: Just Three or Four of 31 Ministers Would Stay

Aleksandar Vucic, the lead candidate on the Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia list, said on TV Informer last night that if the list wins the voters’ trust, the new government would be small, and that only three or four of the 31 members of the current caretaker government would remain in it. The appearance aired on Wednesday evening, October 7, 2026.

How many ministers stay in the new government?

He laid out the plan this way:

If we receive the people’s trust, my plan is a small, strong, efficient, hardworking government, with big changes.

Asked how many people from the current cabinet would stay, he said: “There may be three or four of the current 31.” The sources differ here. According to Novosti’s report, he mentioned three or four, while B92 records the same remark as three, four, five. B92 also says Vucic reminded viewers that his plan envisages a government of 12 ministers and that some of the current ministers will get other duties. The figure of 12 does not appear in Novosti’s report of the same appearance, so we carry it here as B92’s claim.

Vucic also described how such a government would work. B92 quotes him as saying it would be “like a beehive,” with 20 meetings a day:

When you are not in the government, you won’t go to one spot in Pirot or Prijepolje or Priboj, you will go to five spots that day, so that you are truly tired, and not pretending to be tired and that it is very hard on you.

At the local level, he said, more than 50 or 60 percent of the people have to be replaced.

Politics out of schools, a different judiciary

Vucic named removing politics from universities and schools as the most important promise of the campaign, followed right away by a change in the judiciary. “I guarantee you there will be a different judiciary and prosecution,” he said, adding that this means it will not be partisan.

On universities he was more specific: “There will no longer be a single piece of graffiti at state-run universities.” He said this is not revenge on anyone but respect for the Constitution and the law: “I am mature enough not to need revenge. I need the Constitution like I need the Holy Scripture.” As an example of unconstitutional conduct, he pointed to what he said was the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU) producing a video for the Student List. He added that there will be no graffiti in schools either, and that for that message, as he put it, he gets more applause than for anything else.

Pancevo, 15,000 people and a Skoda

Vucic also disputed the claim that 15,000 people attended his campaign rally in Pancevo. “I don’t believe there were 15,000 people in Pancevo,” he said, then added: “Some people say so. It was wonderful.” In his words, people here like to round numbers up, as when signatures are being collected. We wrote about that rally when he promised a motorway to Timisoara and a bridge in Pancevo.

Answering a question about accounts abroad, he said he has none besides the current and giro accounts reported to the Anti-Corruption Agency. He then moved on to the subject of his security detail:

I drive a Skoda, I haven’t learned to have one car going in front and one behind.

Marta Kos and the Student List

Vucic said that he does not care what European Commissioner Marta Kos says:

I am interested in what my people said. I am not interested in what Marta Kos said.

He then widened the comparison to world leaders. “Have you heard what Trump said? Have you heard what Putin said? Modi? Have you heard what Xi Jinping said?” he asked.

Speaking about his opponents, above all the Student List, he said: “If they get 30 and even 35 percent of the votes, I will be amazed at how that is possible.” This is a statement about his opponents, not an electoral target for his own list, and the percentage that would satisfy him is not stated in the sources we checked. We do not yet have a response from the Student List to these remarks.