Autocrats, out!

The role of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the ruling party in Serbia under autocratic President Aleksandar Vučić and a member of the EPP, has led to controversy within the Christian Democratic parties. At the end of September, it was decided to subject the Serbian member party to an internal investigation. The reasons for this were the brutal power politics against the mass protests and Vučić's position on Russian Prime Minister Putin, writes Euronews. President Aleksandar Vučić had recently shown little diplomacy when he commented on the participation of European Green politicians in a protest, saying that the ‘scum of the European Green Party’ had come to support the violence in Novi Sad.

Social democracy also struggles with autocratic leaders in its ranks. After lengthy proceedings, the left-wing nationalist Smer (Direction – Slovak Social Democracy) under Prime Minister Robert Fico is to be finally expelled at the Congress of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in Amsterdam in mid-October. This was reported by euractiv in its Rapporteur newsletter on 16 September: "Smer has been suspended from the umbrella organisation of European centre-left parties since October 2023, after Fico formed a coalition with nationalists. After months of rapprochement with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping – and while weakening institutions and curtailing media rights at home – the Social Democrats are now pulling the plug."

Redacción: Ulli Jentsch