Serbia’s opposition plans protest amid reports of irregularity over Belgrade vote – Europe live | Serbia

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has arrived in Budapest to meet with Hungary’s leadership.

The relationship between Turkey and Hungary is closely watched in the west, in part because the two countries have been delaying Sweden’s accession to Nato.

We asked Florian Bieber, director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, about the significance of yesterday’s elections in Serbia.

One thing that is significant is the level of irregularities that was noticed … we’ll need to get a full investigation, but the large numbers of voters which were apparently bused to Belgrade, especially in the local elections, is something we haven’t seen on that scale before.

And that suggests a very kind of very systematic effort of the government to ensure it gets gets a majority in Belgrade. So this is something which is certainly noteworthy. I mean, there’s been manipulation in the past but this seems to be more serious.

He also noted that there appears to be no clear majority in Belgrade.

Even if it’s not clear that the opposition will be strong enough to actually be able to form a government, but at least it suggests that there’s a genuine weakness in Belgrade.

Bieber also pointed out the ruling SNS party’s stronger than expected performance on a national level.

I think nobody doubted that they would win the elections, but nobody expected that they would improve on the result of last year by such a margin.

Arvydas Anušauskas, Lithuania’s defence minister, said today that the main units of a German army brigade that is moving to Lithuania will start to arrive in 2025, after an initial team in 2024, Reuters reported.

The minister also said the brigade would reach full fighting readiness in 2027.

The plan is part of Nato efforts to boost defences of the alliance’s eastern edge.

Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, is visiting Lithuania today.

The two ministers signed a roadmap outlining a deployment plan.

Tim Lochner, a candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, won a mayoral race yesterday in Pirna, a town in Saxony.

His victory marks the first time a candidate for AfD won a city mayoral race.

Lochner, an independent who ran on an AfD ticket, won 38.5% of the vote in the second round of the race.

A candidate for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came second with 31.4%.

On Friday, the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced that it classified the AfD association in Saxony as a rightwing extremist organisation.

Germany’s opposition conservatives are seeking to win back voters with a sweeping change to the country’s immigration and asylum policy, including plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Jens Spahn, a leading member of the Christian Democrats (CDU), said at the weekend that his party was in favour of the transportation of future refugees to third countries for processing of asylum applications such Ghana and Rwanda in Africa, or to non-EU European countries such as Moldova and Georgia.

“If we did this and kept it up consequently for four, six, eight weeks, we would see the numbers [claiming asylum] reduce dramatically,” said Spahn, who is vice parliamentary leader of the CDU.

Spahn was defending a 70-page position paper presented by the CDU last Monday, in which the party said if in government it would propose limiting the number of asylum seekers coming to Germany, and move those who entered the EU to “safe third countries” where their applications would be processed.

The CDU has made no secret of its aims to win back voters from the far-right nationalist AfD, which is running second in opinion polls, citing migration, alongside inflation, as the top issue for many Germans that are likely to dominate campaigns for regional elections next year and the federal election expected to take place in autumn 2025.

Spahn called third countries “safe harbours” that “would fulfil the terms and conditions of the UN refugee convention”.

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Serbia’s opposition is planning a protest this evening, amid allegations of irregularities in yesterday’s parliamentary and local elections.

An opposition coalition, Serbia Against Violence, had hoped to do well in the Belgrade city council election. There are now allegations that people who do not reside in the capital were transported there to vote, and the opposition says the results in Belgrade should be annulled and a repeat election held.

“It is completely clear that in Belgrade the opposition parties received more votes than the parties that have represented the government in the capital! We will defend the electoral will of the citizens!” said the Party of Freedom and Justice, part of the opposition coalition.

President Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling SNS party has claimed victory in Sunday’s early parliamentary election, amid concerns about widespread reports of irregularities.

Early results put the SNS – which appeared on the ballot as “Aleksandar Vučić – Serbia must not stop!” at about 46%.

An opposition alliance, Serbia Against Violence, is at about 23%.

Good morning and welcome back to the Europe blog.

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