BELGRADE: After cementing his party’s rule in a landslide victory Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will on Monday begin a series of meetings aimed at rebooting frozen talks with former war foe Kosovo.

The conflict is one of Europe’s most intractable territorial disputes, with Serbia refusing to accept the independence its former province declared after breaking away in a bloody war in the late 1990s.

Thanks to a boosted parliamentary majority after Sunday’s electoral win, Vucic now has broader reign to tackle the highly sensitive issue, according to analysts. With help from a partial opposition boycott, Vucic’s centre-right Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) took home more than 62 percent of the vote, followed by its traditional junior coalition partner with around 10 percent.

It is the biggest victory yet for a party which has been in power since 2012.—AFP