Gojkovic: Idea of Vojvodina Breaking Away Will Not Fly

Maja Gojkovic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Vojvodina Premier Maja Gojkovic said on Jan. 13 that the idea of that autonomous province breaking away would not fly in Vojvodina or in Serbia and that the number of those who supported the idea at the national level was on the level "really of statistical error."

"Also, they did not put forward those ideas at the last election because apparently they left them for this period, when someone decided to create chaos, to try to create chaos in Serbia, to block institutions, to prevent students from studying," Gojkovic, also a funcationary in the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, told B92 TV.

Serbian parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Jan. 12 that the demands of the students organizing blockades at university schools were political and that the organizers of student blockaders were "separatists" who wanted Vojvodina to break away from Serbia.

Bojan Kostres, president of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, said on Jan. 13 that the statement was "nothing more than spin" and "the result of fear due to the fact that surveys show that 60 percent of Serbian citizens believe the state is headed in the wrong direction and that more than 60 percent support the protests and university school blockades."

Ana Oreg, an MP and vice president of the Free Citizens' Movement, denied Brnabic's claims that the students advocated Vojvodina breaking away and added that what they wanted was "liberation from Progressive sheriffs who have devastated the country."