Belgrade - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has come under
pressure because of his son Danilo's suspected mafia contacts.
The most powerful politician in the country has for two days been
complaining about the alleged "witch-hunt" of his 22-year-old son.
"My political opponents fail to defeat me with ideas and programmes,
so they try to break me psychologically by attacking my family," he
complained on Friday evening on the government-owned TV station TV
Prva.
A reporter from the independent research network Krik photographed
Danilo Vucic last Wednesday in a central Belgrade pub in the company
of a well-known soccer hooligan.
The group he was with was watching a broadcast of the local derby
between Red Star Belgrade and Partizan.
The young Vucic had been seen with Aleksandar Vidojevic at least
three times in the past. Police investigations are ongoing into his
alleged membership in an internationally operating Montenegrin mafia
clan.
Vidojevic leads the Partizan Ultras, who call themselves
"janissaries" and are regularly linked to acts of violence and
vandalism.
Vucic senior defended Vidojevic. "This young man has never been
charged with drug-related offences, only for fighting, but he has
never been convicted for that either," he said in the one-and-a-half
hour television interview.
Parliamentary and municipal elections are scheduled for June 21 in
Serbia, with Vucic's right-wing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) a
clear favourite.
Part of the opposition is boycotting the election. Critics accuse
Vucic of eliminating the conditions for free elections by repression
and misuse of government resources.
Since Vucic also controls much of the media, his son's affairs are
not expected to damage him.