Serbian jokester presidential runner "Beli" concludes election campaign with a bang

Record ID: 645227

  • Title: Serbian jokester presidential runner "Beli" concludes election campaign with a bang
  • Date: 31st March 2017
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE LUKA MAKSIMOVIC, ALIAS LJUBISA PRELETACEVIC "BELI", SAYING: "The essence, people, is that you finally have someone to vote for. Thirty years of the same heads, all 60, 70 or 50 years old. Their time is over. Beli has arrived, people. Young, strong, crazy, ready to tackle, ready to help, willing to steal, but willing to give. That's the essence. That's the essence!" CROWD CHEERING AT RALLY STATUE OF HAWK ON STAGE
  • Embargoed: 14th April 2017 12:29
  • Keywords: Serbian election jokester runner Berli satire
  • Location: MLADENOVAC, SERBIA
  • City: MLADENOVAC, SERBIA
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA0036AAIMGP
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Serbia's jokester presidential candidate Luka Maksimovic - alias Ljubisa Preletacevic Beli - concluded his campaign for the April 2 election on Thursday (March 30) evening with a performance-party-rally in his hometown Mladenovac, 50 kilometres south of Belgrade.
    Maksimovic - or Beli, at least while he is dressed in a shrill white suit, with his pants stuffed into thick wool socks and wearing cheap white loafers - was carried on stage by four men sitting on a "throne" moving to the famous tune of the of "The Lord of the Rings", a movie he has referred to in the past in his campaign videos.
    The rally went on as a party, with the candidate singing some of his goals in a falsetto following the tune of famous opera Carmen and dancing to the beat of Serbian turbo folk, mixing sounds of electric guitars with the accordion.
    "The essence is … you finally have someone to vote for," he told a crowd of supporters in Mladenovac, a moribund town of 56,000 in which his father has held a popular restaurant for more than three decades.
    Maksimovic launched the character of Preletacevic - featuring a politician who defects from party to party to keep reaping benefits - a year ago in the same style, mocking the Serbian political scene at full tilt. Surprisingly, polls show he can reach second position after the favourite, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's Progressive Party.
    Ahead of the election on Sunday, pollsters predict Vucic's win already in the first round, with over 50 per cent of the votes.
    But up to 20 per cent of voters have said in recent polls they have not decided yet who to vote for and due to his unique campaign, pollsters have been unable to confidently gauge the level of support "Beli" may receive.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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