Vucic to be Sworn in as Serbia's New President

Serbia's President-elect, Aleksandar Vucic, will sworn in on Wednesday in parliament but the ceremonial inauguration will take place later in June, Serbian media have reported.

The newspaper Vecernje Novosti on Sunday said Vucic will sworn in in parliament over the constitution and a replica of the 12th-century Miroslav Gospel - one of the oldest surviving documents in Old Church Slavonic, listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

Media reports said that Vucic thereby wanted to pay respect towards both the contemporary state and Serbian tradition.

The outgoing Prime Minister and head of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party won 54.9 per cent of the vote in the April 2 presidential election, securing a five-year term as President.

The actual inauguration will take place in the second part of June with world leaders and officials reportedly among the guests.

"The inauguration ceremony will mark a new political era. It will be after June 20," a senior Progressive Party official Nebojsa Stefanovic said, Serbia's Tanjug news agency reported on May 22.

The first event marking Vucic's assumption of his new post will be organised on the same date when departing President Tomislav Nikolic took over his duties five years ago.

Nikolic was sworn in parliament in the presence of ex-President Boris Tadic and rest of the presidential candidates in the 2012 elections, as well as Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej and the diplomatic corps.

Former President Tadic was inaugurated in 2004 at a glamorous event in front of about 2,000 guests, but which was marred by minor incidents, as MPs from the far-right Serbian Radical Party were shouting while wearing T-shirts with the image of their leader...