Officials: Serbia's PM to run for president
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, listens to OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Austrian Foreign Minister, Sebastian Kurz, during a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. Kurz is on a one-day visit to Serbia. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (The Associated Press)
Officials say Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will run for the presidency in the election in April.
Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said after a Serbian Progressive Party meeting on Tuesday that Vucic was unanimously approved by the ruling party.
The decision means that current pro-Russian president, Tomislav Nikolic, will end his term, unless he decides to run for re-election independently.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Although the post is largely ceremonial, the vote could determine whether Serbia continues on its EU membership path, or will slide toward its traditional Slavic ally Russia. Vucic is a former ultranationalist turned pro-EU reformer.
The dates of the two-round vote have not yet been announced, but numerous candidates have announced they are running. Those include ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj, a staunch pro-Russian who has been acquitted for war crimes by a U.N. court, and former Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic