On 16 March, Serbia held its parliamentary elections that had originally been scheduled to take place in May 2016. The overwhelming victory of Aleksandar Vučić’s party (48%),  the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), marks a turning point in Serbian politics. This is the first time since 1990 that a political party has won an outright majority in an election. The victory was boosted by an equally impressive SNS triumph in municipal elections in the capital, Belgrade.

Having won 158 seats in the 250 seat national parliament, the victory is a personal triumph for Vučić, who has been First Deputy Prime Minister since July 2012.  With 48% of the popular vote, the SNS doesn’t need to assemble a coalition to form a governing majority by the deadline of 1 May.

The SNS has more than doubled its tally from the 2012 parliamentary elections, when it won 73 seats. Although the Party can now dispense with its coalition ally from the previous government, the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Socialists demonstrated impressive electoral resilience despite the huge SNS victory. They retained their 2012 share of the vote, 14%, entitling the Party to 44 seats in the new parliament and making it the second largest party.

Vučić says that no time will be wasted in forming a new government, and that he’s willing to form alliances with all parties. He is, however, expected to form an alliance with the New Democratic Party, a small new party that was rapidly put together in the past two months.