Like most recent elections, this spring’s presidential campaign in Serbia has been anything but boring. Acting Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić’s overwhelming first-round victory — with 55.07 percent of the vote based on 99 percent counted — seemed to prove that the election had been rigged.

Serbians immediately took to the streets, expressing their dissatisfaction with the nation’s undemocratic turn and their rage at living conditions that have been falling since the global economic crisis.

The crash reached Serbia in 2010, and contributed to the defeat of the Democratic Party (DS) at the hands of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) two years later. Since then, the ruling party has been playing a carefully calculated game to consolidate power in a tumultuous period.