Serbia’s democratic opposition parties, and citizens striving for change, are failing to unite into a single political bloc, as they did in the time of Slobodan Milosevic, when the dissatisfied and the opposition acted as one.

Without this synergy, it will not be possible to topple President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party, whose reign is in many ways reminiscent of the dark times under Milosevic.

Many people want change. Serbia is not a country heading in the right direction, according to every third citizen, more precisely of 35 per cent of the people, a recent poll shows.

This deterioration can be seen in many areas. Serbia’s ranking in the annual corruption perceptions index, produced by the rights group Transparency International, gets worse every year. The international non-profit organisation CIVICUS has placed Serbia in the category of countries in which even basic liberties are curtailed.