Vucic expects to no longer be SNS leader after May 27

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday evening he expected to no longer be the leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) after a May 27 session of its assembly.

"I will remain a member of the party, and I believe we will elect a new party leadership on that day," Vucic told Prva TV.

He announced that the process of creating a People's Movement for the State would begin after St Vitus's Day - June 28.

When asked if this meant the SNS would cease to exist, he responded that that would never happen.

He said he wanted to form a movement that would be broader than the SNS and offer new people an opportunity to lead the country, regardless of their party affiliations in the past.

"I want us to form a movement that will be broader than the SNS and that I believe the SNS will decide to join, but a movement into which I want to get people who are not in the SNS - people from other political parties, people who used to be with our political opponents but can go side by side with us in these difficult times because difficult times that will be more difficult than the past are ahead of us. We will try to get the country on the right track to continue the great and the significant progress," Vucic said.

Speaking about potential candidates to succeed him at the helm of the SNS, Vucic said that depended on people in the party but that there were "three or four serious candidates."