Aleksandar Vučić, until recently Serbia's president, now wants to be prime minister. On the evening of 3 October he filled the Belgrade Arena with thousands of supporters. After the anthem "Bože pravde" they greeted him with chants of "Aco Srbine" and "Victory", and he gave a speech that sounded like the programme of a man who has spent the last few years in opposition, not at the top of the state.

The speech began with thanks to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico for his support. Fico had been announced as a guest at the rally but cancelled in the end. So the support arrived without the guest.

Then came a list of promises. A government of just 12 ministers, which will be "on wheels" - out in the field every day, "not wandering from Paris to London and playing at being big shots". Municipal officials will have to visit the villages twice a day instead of once or twice a month. New or fully renovated health centres, new medicines for rare diseases, huge sums for sewage and storm drainage, a special law for southern Serbia, and thinking about small and large nuclear power plants. "The wells are drying up, people won't have water," he warned.

All of it sounds nice. But the unavoidable question remains: who was running Serbia while the wells were drying up and the ministers were touring Europe? Vučić himself admitted that "hardly anyone listens to the little man" and that this is "the first thing that has to change". You rarely see a politician criticise so convincingly the consequences of a time when he himself was in power.

The loudest messages were meant for the neighbours. "We won't say that Croatian is our official language instead of Serbian, we won't sing Thompson's songs, we have our own beautiful songs, our own Vidovdan," Vučić said, adding that Serbia "was never on the side of the Nazis". He thanked the Serbs of Kosovo, "heroes who keep their name and surname", and boasted that he had not extradited a single Serb to the Hague tribunal.

The student list, he said, received "huge money from abroad" to "incite hatred" among citizens. Right after that he called for respect towards them: "For us they are people, not non-people, just political opponents." He promises to extend a hand to them on 26 October - if his "United Serbia" list wins the election the day before.

A hand for the opponent, but only after beating him, and accusations of foreign money followed by a call for respect - the Balkans know this rhetoric by heart. Whether voters in Serbia buy it once again will be known on 25 October.