Media: Parliament to Debate No Confidence in Cabinet

Serbian government building (Beta/Nenad Petrovic)

Belgrade media have reported that the National Assembly of Serbia will hold a sitting on July 27 to debate the opposition’s motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Djuro Macut’s cabinet – following three unsuccessful attempts by regime MPs to secure a quorum to resolve the matter back in April.

Analysts do not expect the no confidence bid to succeed, claiming the regime wants control over the date of the snap elections. The current timeframe being floated is early December.

The opposition filed the motion of no confidence in February, over the corruption scandal and ensuing legal proceedings tied to the attempted sale of the former Army General Staff Building in downtown Belgrade. Despite the illegal removal of the building’s heritage site status, the petitioners stated, Macut did not even attempt to remove from office Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic, who is standing trial in the case.

At the time the motion was filed, its initiators were represented by People’s Party of Serbia leader Miroslav Aleksic. In addition to this party’s caucus, the motion was also signed by the Freedom and Justice Party, the Green-Left Front, the Serbia Center party, We – Power of the People, the Ecological Uprising, the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, the Movement of Free Citizens and the Party of Democratic Action of Sandzak.

Responding to the news that the motion could be debated next week, Aleksic said he assumes the regime’s plan is to hold the sitting so that it could subsequently call snap parliamentary elections.