Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, has dissolved parliament and called early parliamentary and municipal elections for 17 December, less than two years after his Serbian Progressive party (SNS) won the last ballot. “We live in times that are difficult for the whole world, in times of global challenges, wars and conflicts when it is necessary that we are all united in preserving vital national and state interests of Republic of Serbia,” Vučić said on Wednesday. The Serbian president is widely seen as seeking to buy time to cement his authority as he tries to work out how to best normalise ties with independent, predominantly Albanian Kosovo, which Serbia still sees as its southern province. Several Serbian opposition parties officially asked for the vote in September after the coalition government failed to accept demands from mass protests that erupted after back-to-back shootings in May that killed 18 people, half of them children. The protest organisers accused the ruling party and government-friendly media outlets of fanning a culture of violence. The parliamentary election will coincide with local votes in 65 municipalities, including the capital, Belgrade. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on a visit to Belgrade on Tuesday that Serbia and Kosovo must step up their efforts to normalise relations after the recent flare-up of violence if they want to join the EU. Belgrade will also need to back western sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, root out corruption and organised crime, reform the economy and improve the judiciary, the business climate and its human rights record, the bloc has said. At the last elections in April 2022, the conservative SNS – which has been in power since 2012 – and its partners won 120 of the 250 seats in parliament. Vučić, a former hardline nationalist, was elected for a second term as president. Serbia’s main opposition parties boycotted the 2020 elections and decried the process as neither free nor fair. Analysts have said the president’s move is also aimed at bolstering his own support and reforming the SNS, whose popularity has slipped after months of opposition protests after the two mass shootings in May. Polls suggest an SNS-led coalition would receive about 44% of votes and would have to seek allies for a majority. The centrist opposition bloc, Against the Violence, is on about 38%, and ultranationalist and pro-Russian parties could jointly win 11%. Vučić resigned as the head of SNS in May but still wields considerable influence in the party. Opponents have accused him and his allies of autocracy, stifling the media, election fraud, violence, corruption and links to organised crime. Kosovans believe Vučić’s decision to call elections partly explains why he did not agree to a US-EU solution for managing northern Kosovo after five hours of meetings in Brussels last week involving senior EU leaders. Although Kosovo agreed to all parts of the plan, which was put to the leaders in Serbia and Kosovo in separate meetings the previous Saturday, Vučić refused to sign it. Kosovo has long suspected Serbia would not sign any agreement for self-management of the northern municipalities, where the population is Serbian dominated, because it would be a step on the road to official recognition of Kosovo by Belgrade. Von der Leyen told Vučić and Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, on Tuesday that the EU expected Serbia and Kosovo to respect the agreements they made in Ohrid, North Macedonia, this year to normalise their relations. Von der Leyen met Vučić in Belgrade a day after she asked Serbia to “deliver on de facto recognition of Kosovo”. After their meetings in Brussels, the senior EU leaders called on Kosovo’s leadership to press ahead with the self-management plan, known as the association of Serb-majority municipalities, and for Serbia to deliver on recognition.