Opposition Party: Gov’t Sabotaging Electronic Media Regulatory Authority over Orban, Coalition Partners

REM - Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (Beta/Milos Miskov)

Free Citizens Movement MP Vladimir Pajic has accused the ruling party in Serbia, the Serbian Progressive Party, of "intentionally sabotaging" the process of electing members to the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media in order to preserve relations with its coalition partners and the regime of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"Everything we have been seeing over the last few days points to the process being undermined intentionally, under the excuse of procedural errors that do not exist," Pajic said in an appearance on Blic TV, the Free Citizens Movement said in a press release on Nov. 19.

He said there was a clear and collective desire within the parliamentary Council on Culture and Information to elect a legitimate and independent Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media Council after a year, but that the ruling majority "has decided not to vote for the ethnic minority candidate, thereby consciously leaving its composition incomplete." "If there is the will for the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media to be independent, the candidates have to be elected. This way we again have a partial composition which suits the interests of the government, not the citizens," Pajic said.

He said there had been a trend for years of the government balancing between European demands and the interests of its coalition partners, and that "it is clear that relations with the Viktor Orban regime are the priority." "The ties between Vucic and Orban have proven more important than the European agenda. The fact that our [security] service followed and listened to Free Citizens Movement vice president Ana Oreg for more than one year just on the suspicion that she met with Hungarian movement representatives says enough. That is not the path to Europe," Pajic said.