Opposition Leader: International Community, Domestic Institutions, Protests Are Opposition’s Areas of Action

Radomir Lazovic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

One of leaders of the Serbia Against Violence coalition, Green-Left Front co-president Radomir Lazovic, said on Dec. 28 that, in circumstances where the regime has been caught committing unimaginable electoral irregularities, the opposition has “three pillars” of action: the international community, domestic institutions and protests.

According to him, one of these pillars entails involving the international community by launching an international investigation into the Dec. 17 snap elections. “We don’t have access to the electoral roll. Our institutions cannot perform an investigation because they are under [President] Aleksandar Vucic’s control,” Lazovic told Nova TV.

The second area or “pillar” of action, he said, involves petitioning all relevant domestic institutions, while the third is putting pressure on the authorities via protests, demanding that the public be told what happened and what kind of “engineering” was performed on the election results. That rigging took place “was confirmed by international monitors as well, who have said that grave irregularities occurred,” Lazovic explained.

With regards to the university students who were arrested for allegedly attempting to overthrow the constitutional order in the Dec. 24 riots in front of Belgrade City Hall, Lazovic said some of them have made plea bargains while the rest have been remanded in custody. The politician believes that the government has treated said protesters unethically, having done “everything to elicit admissions [of guilt], which were then touted as attempts to overthrow the constitutional order.” “Hooligans wreak havoc and are issued RSD5,000 fines, while these young people, these university students, good students, may be marked for life by the state in this way,” he added.