Opposition Leaders Differ in Opinion on Further Steps

National Assembly of Serbia (BETAPHOTO/ANA SLOVIC)

MP Aleksandar ‘Cuta’ Jovanovic said on Sept. 4 that the National Assembly of Serbia passes laws which are in direct conflict with the lives and interests of the public and that the opposition should be blocking the assembly, not staging further protests under the ‘Serbia Against Violence’ banner.

“The opposition should take action, not return to the streets for another four months. It’s what the people expect. That we block the operation of Parliament as such and demand snap parliamentary and [local] Belgrade elections. That we demonstrate that this is up to us, not [dependent on] the mercy of Aleksandar Vucic,” said Jovanovic, who is also the leader of the Ecological Uprising movement.

Jovanovic’s statement is an echo of the sentiments he voiced just two days prior, at the capital’s latest ‘Serbia Against Violence’ rally. In response, Democratic Party president Zoran Lutovac said that he refuses to comment on MPs’ “personal opinions. . . which have not been agreed upon and adopted at a joint meeting of opposition caucuses.”

According to head of the Green-Left Front caucus Radomir Lazic, blocking the National Assembly is only one of the tools the opposition has at its disposal. His newly-formed party will “fight within the [state’s] institutions and on the street for the protest demands to be fulfilled,” he said, adding that he is “expecting great changes.”

The representatives of pro-European oppositional parties are set to meet on Sept. 4 to discuss further steps, of which one option is to obstruct the operation of the National Assembly.