"Vučić to take over as prime minister on April 24"

"Vučić to take over as prime minister on April 24"

BELGRADE -- Serbia's new government led by SNS President Aleksandar Vučić will be formed on April 24, the Belgrade daily Večernje Novosti said it had learned.

According to the paper, the timetable determined by the most powerful political figures in the state envisaged that the constitutive session of the Serbian parliament will be held on April 17.

Once new lawmakers take the oath, Vučić will formally receive a mandate from President Tomislav Nikolić to form his cabinet, "but will then promptly disclose his future ministerial team."

According to the article, until the official outcome, the leader of the Progressives (SNS) will through informal consultations with parliamentary parties decide who will join the ruling coalition.

The essential dilemma is whether to continue the alliance with Ivica Dačić's Socialists (SPS) or enter into a political pact with Boris Tadić and the pre-election coalition gathered around his party, the NDS. However, the daily noted, it is "very much a real option" that the SNS could form the cabinet alone, something the election result allows the party to do.

"The current pressure within the SNS is great for as many ministers as possible to come from our party. Literally hundreds of (party) officials have unofficially nominated themselves for one of the departments in Nemanja 11 (government HQ)," the newspaper quoted an unnamed high ranking SNS member.

This source also claims that "political feudalism" that characterized previous cabinets will be "completely abolished this time."

The practice means that parties have a monopoly on certain sectors, if the minister comes from their ranks.