DS needs to be reformed, official says

BELGRADE Democratic Party (DS) top official Borislav Stefanovic has said that the party needs to be reformed. “Serbia needs a strong, changed, reformed and cleansed DS,” he said. DS needs to be reformed, official says He told Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) on Thursday morning that the DS was the only party in Serbia that had democratic capacity to have an open debate. Stefanovic said that it was now necessary for the DS organs to decide on direction they want the party to go, adding that it needed to be done as soon as possible, because “it is not true that it is not anybody’s fault we lost the elections”. When asked why the party still has not done an analysis of the election defeat and why it is still unknown when an election assembly will be held, he said that changes in the party could happen outside the party assembly. According to him, it is not good that media are more interested in the DS’ moves than in bad moves of the government and the new regime. “We will do everything on our part to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” he said and added that the mistakes were evident and that they should be fixed. “It is not true that it is not anybody’s fault and that nothing bad has happened. A lot of bad things happened. We need to learn from the messages we got from the citizens on May 20 and stand up with renewed strength and lead Serbia in a better direction than we have so far and certainly in a better direction that this regime,” Stefanovic pointed out. When asked whether the party could break up, he said that those were media speculations but added that he believed that changes within the party would be made. “It is very important to reach an inter-party agreement as soon as possible so the party would not break up, because it is not in anybody’s interest,” he noted. After speculations about a conflict between DS leader Boris Tadic and his deputy Dragan Djilas, Djilas said on Wednesday that “silence and paralysis” needed to stop. “It has been 100 days since our only election and post-election defeat. We as a party of serious people still have not come out with an analysis of causes and consequences before our members. We do not have a strategic platform that represents a practical plan for the reorganization of the DS, so we could get back in the game in a year or two. We are silent. We are still on a vacation we did not deserve, tired of jobs that we neither started nor finished,” Djilas stressed. Borislav Stefanovic (Tanjug, file) B92 RTS

DS needs to be reformed, official says

He told Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) on Thursday morning that the DS was the only party in Serbia that had democratic capacity to have an open debate.

Stefanović said that it was now necessary for the DS organs to decide on direction they want the party to go, adding that it needed to be done as soon as possible, because “it is not true that it is not anybody’s fault we lost the elections”.

When asked why the party still has not done an analysis of the election defeat and why it is still unknown when an election assembly will be held, he said that changes in the party could happen outside the party assembly.

According to him, it is not good that media are more interested in the DS’ moves than in bad moves of the government and the new regime.

“We will do everything on our part to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” he said and added that the mistakes were evident and that they should be fixed.

“It is not true that it is not anybody’s fault and that nothing bad has happened. A lot of bad things happened. We need to learn from the messages we got from the citizens on May 20 and stand up with renewed strength and lead Serbia in a better direction than we have so far and certainly in a better direction that this regime,” Stefanović pointed out.

When asked whether the party could break up, he said that those were media speculations but added that he believed that changes within the party would be made.

“It is very important to reach an inter-party agreement as soon as possible so the party would not break up, because it is not in anybody’s interest,” he noted.

After speculations about a conflict between DS leader Boris Tadić and his deputy Dragan Đilas, Đilas said on Wednesday that “silence and paralysis” needed to stop.

“It has been 100 days since our only election and post-election defeat. We as a party of serious people still have not come out with an analysis of causes and consequences before our members. We do not have a strategic platform that represents a practical plan for the reorganization of the DS, so we could get back in the game in a year or two. We are silent. We are still on a vacation we did not deserve, tired of jobs that we neither started nor finished,” Đilas stressed.