Budget vote "shakes ruling coalition"

The ruling coalition's largest party, the Democrats (DS), say there will have to be a "serious reexamining of the SVM decision not to vote for the budget". As the Serbian parliament met yesterday to approve the country's 2010 budget, four Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) MPs decided not to support the bill. Budget vote "shakes ruling coalition" The ruling coalition managed to push it through with the help of two independents and an ethnic Albanian MP. Now Oliver Dulic, DS, a minister in the current government, says that while "nobody is happy to be reexamining relations within the ruling coalition, it's clear there will have to be a conversation". Ruling DS and G17 Plus parliament group leaders Nada Kolundzija and Vlajko Senic agree. "I believe this is not an essential dispute that will lead to us losing SVM's support in the future, [but] it would be very important for us to resolve this problem," Senic was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, opposition New Serbia (NS) leader Velimir Ilic said he was certain the government did not have a stable majority, although it "scraped together enough votes to pass the budget". League of Vojvodina Social-Democrats (LSV) Nenad Canak believes that the support for any government is best expressed through the support for its budget draft. "There can be different opinions on anything else, not on the budget. When another law is not adopted, that's about differences within the coalition, when the budget is not adopted, that's a sign that the government had collapsed," said he. Should the ruling coalition decide to forego the four SVM votes in parliament, its "maneuvering space" will be smaller, political analyst Vladimir Goati noted. He said that the opposition Radicals (SRS), DSS and NS are "unacceptable for the government because of their programs", which leaves the Serb Progressive Party (SNS) as a possible new partner. However, "bringing in such a big player would be too complicated for the government's functioning", Goati said. For this reason, he believes it would be realistic to "make a replacement" with one party, close in its program principles and not too large, "such as the Liberal Democrats (LDP)". Parliament on Monday (Beta)

Budget vote "shakes ruling coalition"

The ruling coalition managed to push it through with the help of two independents and an ethnic Albanian MP.

Now Oliver Dulić, DS, a minister in the current government, says that while "nobody is happy to be reexamining relations within the ruling coalition, it's clear there will have to be a conversation".

Ruling DS and G17 Plus parliament group leaders Nada Kolundžija and Vlajko Senić agree.

"I believe this is not an essential dispute that will lead to us losing SVM's support in the future, [but] it would be very important for us to resolve this problem," Senić was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, opposition New Serbia (NS) leader Velimir Ilić said he was certain the government did not have a stable majority, although it "scraped together enough votes to pass the budget".

League of Vojvodina Social-Democrats (LSV) Nenad Čanak believes that the support for any government is best expressed through the support for its budget draft.

"There can be different opinions on anything else, not on the budget. When another law is not adopted, that's about differences within the coalition, when the budget is not adopted, that's a sign that the government had collapsed," said he.

Should the ruling coalition decide to forego the four SVM votes in parliament, its "maneuvering space" will be smaller, political analyst Vladimir Goati noted.

He said that the opposition Radicals (SRS), DSS and NS are "unacceptable for the government because of their programs", which leaves the Serb Progressive Party (SNS) as a possible new partner.

However, "bringing in such a big player would be too complicated for the government's functioning", Goati said.

For this reason, he believes it would be realistic to "make a replacement" with one party, close in its program principles and not too large, "such as the Liberal Democrats (LDP)".