Dacic: SPS Congress in February, Minister Until New Cabinet
The SPS leader spoke from the party's election headquarters after projections that his list missed the threshold: he congratulated the winners and said he will not push personnel changes himself.
Ivica Dacic, president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and top candidate on the “Ivica Dacic - Stability Factor” list, spoke on the evening of October 25 from the SPS election headquarters in Belgrade and announced a party congress in February. He said he will not set off personnel changes himself, and that as interior minister he will stay in the post until a new government is formed.
He spoke after Ipsos and CeSID published a projection of National Assembly seats based on 56 percent of the sample counted. According to what CeSID posted on its account on X, as relayed by Telegraf, the Students’ List “Students Win” has 139 seats, the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list has 104, the “Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians - Balint Pastor” list has three, the “Albanian Coalition” has two, and “Rasim Ljajic - Human” and “SDA of Sandzak - Guardians of Sandzak” have one each. The list built around the SPS is not among those the projection gives seats to. Telegraf reports that, according to first information, it did not clear the threshold. We reported the Ipsos and CeSID estimates that Dacic’s list stays below the threshold on the evening of October 25.
Where the accounts differ
The sources disagree on the first sentence of the address. N1 and Beta report that Dacic said “The referendum atmosphere is unbeatable.” Telegraf, which says it carries the speech in full, records “The referendum atmosphere is unfavorable.” The reports also differ on other lines, so each quote below is attributed to the outlet whose account it comes from.
In the version carried by N1, Dacic said:
“The Socialist Party of Serbia, together with its coalition partners, tried to take up a certain political space in that referendum atmosphere. Unfortunately, we did not manage to achieve the result we wanted.”
Kurir reports that he thanked activists, members, supporters, coalition partners and voters, then congratulated the winners:
“Of course we are not satisfied with these results. This is one lost battle. We congratulate those who won the elections and those who won more than we did, both the Students’ List and the list of Aleksandar Vucic.”
He explained the result by saying voters mostly chose between the two largest lists, so in his view there was little room for a third option. The figure of more than 100,000 voters comes from Dacic himself. Kurir reports:
“For months and years we have been hearing that we are losing our identity and that we do not exist, but more than 100,000 people voted for our list in these conditions.”
In Telegraf’s account he added that he does not yet know the exact result: “We still do not know the exact result, but we know that over 100,000 votes are there.”
What does Dacic announce for the party?
The answer is short: a congress, an analysis and a reform. Kurir says he announced the party congress for February, when the result is to be analyzed, along with what could have been done better and whether there were mistakes in political moves. N1 records him saying the congress will be held “most likely in February.” He also repeated that he has announced a reform of the SPS.
He said he will not open personnel questions himself so as not to harm the party, and that the first step is to look at where good results were achieved and where they were not. According to Telegraf, his health also affected the result: “I put in maximum effort, despite a health condition that affected the results, because I was out of action for several months.” Kurir records this as his months-long absence from political activity, which affected the state of the party.
He also said the SPS is not giving up: “This is not the first battle we have lost, but we have never lost the struggle as a whole. We are continuing our struggle.” Kurir carries his closing message as well: “Regardless of the poor election result, I want to say: heads up, we are moving on, we are heading for new victories.”
Dacic says Serbia faces new elections. According to Kurir, he means presidential and new parliamentary elections, which, as he put it, other political actors have also announced, while in Telegraf’s account of the speech they are presidential and local.
Interior minister until a new government
He addressed the public separately as a minister. According to Telegraf, he said:
“As a minister, I want to say that until the end of my term, as interior minister, I will make sure that all state bodies preserve public order and peace. I will perform the function until a new government arrives, and then I will devote myself to the party until the new membership is elected.”
Telegraf also carries his message on relations with other parties: “We will be opponents of every party that opposes the positions of the state, regardless of whether they are in government or in opposition.”
