Milenko Jovanov, head of the Serbian Progressive Party’s (SNS) parliamentary group, responded sharply to Dragan Djilas, leader of the Freedom and Justice Party, after Djilas claimed that under fair election conditions, SNS would suffer a crushing defeat in towns like Kosjeric and Zajecar.

“Djilas is absolutely right — we’re collapsing, and he’s dominating,” Jovanov wrote sarcastically on social media platform X. “If he keeps ‘winning’ elections like this, he won’t be around in politics much longer.”

Jovanov followed up with figures meant to counter Djilas’s claims. In Kosjeric, where the opposition had reportedly gone all in and declared themselves victorious, SNS actually improved. In the 2025 local elections, they earned 3,686 votes (49.23%), compared to 2,982 votes (48.16%) in the 2023 parliamentary elections. According to Jovanov, that’s a clear increase both in raw votes and percentage share.

Regarding Zajecar, Jovanov acknowledged that full results are still pending, but early tallies point to a similar upward trend. In 2023, SNS won 11,976 votes (48.43%). So far in 2025, they’ve secured 11,498 votes, with an estimated 2,700 more still to be counted, pushing the total to roughly 14,200. He added that support for independent MP Nenad Ristovic, who was part of the SNS coalition in 2023, could raise that figure by another 700 votes.

Jovanov ended his statement with a strong accusation against the opposition. “They use these ridiculous lies to keep their supporters trapped in a fantasy,” he said. “Their media outlets lie, their politicians lie, even their analysts lie. They lie about winning, lie about us losing support — all to build a fake world that has nothing to do with reality.”