Opposition Party: Solution Is Interim Gov’t, Unfair to Let Students Fight Alone

Milos Jovanovic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

New Democratic Party of Serbia president Milos Jovanovic said on Feb. 12 that there was only one way out of the current crisis in Serbia -- an interim government composed of parliamentary political factors.

He added that its only job would be to finally create the conditions for free and democratic elections. "It's unbelievable that we are even in the situation to have to fight for fundamental rights and basic honesty, which [Serbian President] Aleksandar Vucic is quite obviously and very sorely missing," Jovanovic told the Politika daily in an interview.

According to him, the cabinet he proposes would not be an expert government, but an interim government made up of organizations in the parliament. "And that government will definitely have to form a working body mostly composed of experts, in addition to parliamentary and extraparliamentary political parties. The working body will precisely list and enumerate all necessary normative, procedural and practical changes that will bring us to free and democratic elections," Jovanovic said.

He stressed that in this fight for true change "only the students have sacrificed anything -- exam periods, and risked their lives in front of stirred up drivers" from the Serbian Progressive Party. "And so it would be not only unfair but ineffectual to let the students fight alone and to hide behind them. This is simply a fight for freedom against bare violence, primitivism, thievery and national treason. That fight by definition is our business as Serbs and citizens of Serbia. That is why we must all rise like one," Jovanovic said.