Opposition on Proposed New Cabinet

Aleksandar Vucic, Ivica Dacic, Novak Nedic, Jan. 28 2025 (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

The representatives of opposition parties in Serbia criticized the proposed new cabinet on April 14, saying that it would not resolve the crisis in the country.

Democratic Party president Srdjan Milivojevic said on April 14 that the new cabinet was the eighth to have been set up by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic "in 13 years of autocracy and authoritarianism," and that each had been worse than the last. He told BETA that this cabinet would be "a government of continuity in organized crime and the betrayal of national interests of Serbia, while undermining the foundation of the national agenda and destroying society."

Dragan Djilas, the president of the Freedom and Justice Party, told N1 TV that the proposed new ministers were "irrelevant people" and that Vucic had come up with a "classic reconstruction" of the cabinet.

Free Citizens' Movement president Pavle Grbovic told BETA that "naming someone anti-European minister of European Union integration is a clear signal that the regime has given up on that too," and that it was clear that the purpose of this cabinet was a brutal crackdown on teachers while on the other hand making no improvements when it comes to the freedom of the press or election conditions.

Ecological Uprising MP Danijela Nestorovic told BETA that the proposed new cabinet was indicative of Vucic's need to "step it up when it comes to retaliation" and that people without any credibility had been put forward to head up key ministries.

People's Movement of Serbia president Miroslav Aleksic told N1 that the names proposed to fill ministerial seats were "irrelevant," stating that they had no say and that it was "sad that the president of the country was ignoring the state of society, the rebelling people and all messages he is getting from the students, citizens, teachers, farmers, which will only serve to deepen the crisis further."

The Green-Left Front said the composition of the new government clearly indicated that the regime wanted to go the way of new conflict and attempts to break the protests and blockades, continued pressure on teachers and repression against Serbian citizens, while "likely the biggest slap in the face of the public is putting forward Dejan Vuk Stankovic as the new minister of education" who "directly called for arresting students, expelling them from university buildings, putting a violent end to the blockades, the sacking and arrest of the rector."

The Serbia Center party said the proposed new cabinet represented intentional humiliation of university students and citizens, and was part of a plan to do everything to quash the protests through violent means.

Aleksandar Pavic, an MP from the We - the Strength of the People - Branimir Nestorovic caucus, told BETA that the proposed new cabinet was "essentially a government of continuity" that "will not quiet the discontent that sparked the protests of the last months."