Attempted Television Debate between Authorities And Opposition

RTS ruins (BETAPHOTO/NENAD PETROVIC/DS)

During the attempted television debate between the authorities and the opposition on the RTS Public Media Service on Sept. 14, an official of the Serbian Progressive Party, Milenko Jovanov, told the president of the Democratic Party, Zoran Lutovac, several times that he would “get slapped in the face” and interrupted him by speaking about other issues, while the atmosphere in the studio was on the edge of incident and the viewers were unable to hear anything about the subject because of the shouting.

Lutovac reiterated during the show, while being constantly interrupted by Jovanov, that the opposition requested the scheduling and holding of early parliamentary and Belgrade elections by the end of this year, in the petition submitted to the president at the registry office of the Presidency on Sept. 11.

“We demand and will not give up on demanding that the [parliamentary and Belgrade] elections are separated,” Lutovac said, adding that the opposition that is technically organizing the “Serbia Against Violence” protests would not be seeking early elections had their demands been fulfilled. He recollected Vucic’s statement of July 2, when he said that elections would be scheduled immediately if the opposition requested so officially.

Jovanov, who is the Progressive Party’s whip in the Serbian Assembly, said that the opposition would get the response to their demand about early elections “by the end of the month, and will be satisfied with the answer.” Jovanov mostly spoke about issues that he was not asked about, saying among other things that “the authorities who would be defeated by Zoran Lutovac should commit collective suicide.”