Opposition Party: Giving Financial Assistance to Citizens ahead of Elections Is a Budget-Paid Campaign

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/PREDSEDNISTVO REPUBLIKE SRBIJE/Dimitrije Goll)

Party Serbia Center (SRCE) on July 14 said that President Aleksandar Vucic’s announcement about giving financial assistance to all adult citizens, coming a few weeks ahead of scheduling elections, is “a gift that is not a gift”, but a campaign paid from the state budget.

“Vucic himself said that the money comes from equity funds. But it does not account for state revenues, but it is rather the money from the sold public and state assets, created by generations before us. Common property was sold, and the money is distributed ahead of election, as a personal gesture. You are not getting a gift. You are rather getting a part of what was already yours, and only after it has been sold,” the party said in a release.

They also said that when the state gives money ahead of elections, it is not a social policy measure, but a campaign paid from the state budget. “The budget is passed by the Assembly and executed by the Government, while the president, under the Constitution, does not have powers over these matters. And yet, the public learns about the money that belongs to all of us from his statement given in a rural household, rather than through a Government decree. This is not a detail, but rather the picture of a country where the institutions do not make decisions, but only communicate what one man has already decided,” the party said.

SRCE also said that the announced one-off assistance to citizens “will not change anything in the long run, because the standard of households in Serbia is still 56 percent of the EU average.” “There is available money, but it is spent inappropriately - about EUR2 billion goes for interests annually, while only EUR332 million is spent on science – or six times more for the consequences than for the future,” according to the party.