V. Hungarian leader lashes out at Tadić

Istvan Pastor has accused President Boris Tadic of violating the Constitution with statements he recently made regarding the draft Vojvodina statute. Pastor, who heads the Association of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM), told Novi Sad daily Dnevnik that Tadic's statement that the Vojvodina statute issue should be solved as part of the announced process of regionalization, which requires Constitutional changes, actually means that he is “rejecting the Vojvodina statute until constitutional changes have been made”. V. Hungarian leader lashes out at Tadic "What we heard from Boris Tadic on Saturday is obviously his scenario, which he stated outright, is also a message to the Serbian society that the Constitution means nothing to the president,” Pastor said. Tadic said at a meeting of the Democratic Party main board last weekend in Belgrade that the process of regionalization could be possible after constitutional changes, which are expected by the end of this government’s mandate. He also announced that the new regions "will not look like Kosovo or Vojvodina", and that their historical principles will be excluded from their formation. “That is the wrong approach completely. It is dysfunctional and sometimes puts the very idea of decentralization at risk,” Tadic said. Pastor strongly opposes such ideas, stating that as far as Vojvodina’s autonomy is concerned “there is no way to rule out the historical principle”. “There are two things that cannot be forgotten. One is that there is a current Constitution, which recognizes Vojvodina as an autonomy and defines the constitutional deadlines for passing the statute and the law for the transfer of authority, and the other is that there is a difference between regions and autonomous provinces, and that cannot be confused. The president cannot offer solutions that are different from what the state Constitution has to offer,” Pastor said.

V. Hungarian leader lashes out at Tadić

"What we heard from Boris Tadić on Saturday is obviously his scenario, which he stated outright, is also a message to the Serbian society that the Constitution means nothing to the president,” Pastor said.

Tadić said at a meeting of the Democratic Party main board last weekend in Belgrade that the process of regionalization could be possible after constitutional changes, which are expected by the end of this government’s mandate.

He also announced that the new regions "will not look like Kosovo or Vojvodina", and that their historical principles will be excluded from their formation.

“That is the wrong approach completely. It is dysfunctional and sometimes puts the very idea of decentralization at risk,” Tadić said.

Pastor strongly opposes such ideas, stating that as far as Vojvodina’s autonomy is concerned “there is no way to rule out the historical principle”.

“There are two things that cannot be forgotten. One is that there is a current Constitution, which recognizes Vojvodina as an autonomy and defines the constitutional deadlines for passing the statute and the law for the transfer of authority, and the other is that there is a difference between regions and autonomous provinces, and that cannot be confused. The president cannot offer solutions that are different from what the state Constitution has to offer,” Pastor said.