Pro-European opposition: Ruling Majority Trying To Turn Parliament into a Reality, but Has Brought Opposition Together

Parliament of Serbia (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

One year into a new Serbian Parliament makeup, pro-European opposition MPs on Aug. 1 said that the ruling majority had been treating their opponents as “a foreign body,” while in parallel trying to elevate Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as the only institution, and had thereby been attempting to turn the supreme legislative body into “a reality.” But, to their surprise, they had brought all opposition parties together, they added.

“They have been trying to humiliate the parliament, but we will not allow it. We have sustained and have resisted all such attempts, owing to good coordination within the opposition ranks. I am appealing to all in the opposition to pursue this path, and I am also asking reporters to join us in our effort to prevent humiliation of the parliament and to thwart attempts of presenting it as a circus stage,” Democratic Party leader Zoran Lutovac told reporters at the Serbian Parliament.

Borko Stefanovic, a member of Onward to Europe caucus, said the ruling party in the Parliament “has been suppressing freedom of speech,” and rejecting to accept any proposal coming from the opposition. He added that “today, the opposition in Serbia, particularly in the Parliament, has been more united than ever before.”

People’s Party whip Miroslav Aleksic said that the ruling majority had been acting as if they were a service of Vucic and the Government, and not of citizens, recalling that Parliament speaker Vladimir Orlic had issued 67 warnings to the opposition MPs and zero to those of the ruling majority.

Ecological Uprising leader Aleksandar “Cuta” Jovanovic said that the opposition’s goal should be “removal of the criminal government,” while an MP of Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own movement, Djordje Pavicevic, warned that institutions had been undermined which was leading to “an open dictatorship.”