CPAC postpones Belgrade launch after Vucic’s election defeat

US conservative group CPAC has postponed the launch of its Balkan branch in Belgrade, where former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was to be keynote speaker, Serbian daily Danas reported on Thursday.

File photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, September 2, 2025.

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Pool/File Photo

The event had been due to open on November 18, with Vucic as host. It is the only international event cancelled since his camp lost parliamentary elections on October 25, Danas said.

“The conference has been postponed until next year. We were too ambitious in assuming we could organise it in November. We hope it will be a significant event”, CPAC director Matt Schlapp was quoted as saying.

Vucic, who ran for prime minister, lost to the Student List, a group of independent candidates backed by students who had staged protests against his rule for nearly two years.

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference, held in the United States since the 1970s, has in recent years been dominated by supporters of Donald Trump. It also stages events abroad, including in Budapest.

Its last Budapest gathering, in March, came a month before Viktor Orban, a regular CPAC guest, lost an election and left office after 16 years as Hungary’s prime minister.

(jh)

Source: PAP