MPs Say Regime Has Been Avoiding a Debate on Lithium from the Start

Parliament Session , Belgrade, July 23 2024 (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Opposition MPs said in parliament on Sept. 30 that they had been tricked and that for days the regime had been preparing the ground for a parliament debate on lithium not to happen.

People's Movement of Serbia MP Miroslav Aleksic said that Speaker Ana Brnabic had tricked the MPs at the collegium by telling them that a supplementary budget had to be adopted first, whereas now she was blaming the opposition for the lack of time for a session on lithium mining.

Democratic Party leader Zoran Lutovac said that the speaker was accusing them of obstruction, while the cabinet ministers and representatives of the parliamentary majority had used up three quarters of the time at the session on the supplementary budget.

Freedom and Justice Party President Dragan Djilas said that the point of all the attempts by the parliament speaker and the regime's MPs to avoid a session on lithium, which should have been held at the opposition's request, was that the Serbian president could not attend the session, as the majority of the opposition MPs who had proposed the session had turned down Brnabic's request to invite Aleksandar Vucic to the session.

Ecological Uprising MP Danijela Nestorovic said that Brnabic had canceled a special session on lithium mining because the incumbent authorities were afraid of citizens and knew that the majority of the people were against Rio Tinto.

According to New Democratic Party of Serbia leader Milos Jovanovic, sessions on lithium and on Kosovo and Metohija will not take place anytime soon and in that situation the opposition has nothing left but to continue its political fight outside of state institutions.