Vojvodina gets reshuffled provincial government

Vojvodina gets reshuffled provincial government

Presenting the motion to reshuffle the government, Pajtić said that its main goals will be to adopt the laws on the province's authority and funding and improve the social status of the residents of the province.

Pajtić listed the government's successes in the past period and severely criticized the central government and the lack of dialogue between the two governments.

The new Vojvodina deputy prime minister is Secretary for the Economy, Labor, Employment and Gender Equality Miroslav Vasin (DS).

League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) Branislav Bogaroski will be the new provincial secretary for agriculture, Vladimir Pavlov - until recently a member of Boris Tadić's Social Democratic Party - is the new secretary for science and technological development, with Nenad Stanković, a non-partisan figure, elected as provincial secretary for energy at the proposal of LSV.

Sixty-three assembly members voted in favor, while 36 opposition assembly members voted against, and six assembly members of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM), a member of the ruling coalition, took no part in the vote.

Speaking to reporters after the session, Prime Minister Pajtić said that, contrary to allegations by the opposition, the vote has confirmed that the Vojvodina government has majority support in the provincial assembly.

The SVM's decision to abstain from voting shows that the party led by Istvan Pastor has embraced the position of its coalition partners at national level rather than that of its partners at provincial level, Pajtić said.

He said that the DS is not indifferent to the SVM position and that the matter will soon be discussed with coalition partners.

Pastor said that the SVM did not vote for the government reshuffle because it believes that the reshuffle is not a solution to end the political crisis, but added that the party accepts a solution by agreement.

Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) deputy leader Igor Mirović said that the majority to push the reshuffle through had been secured "by buying Strength of Serbia Movement assemblywoman Vera Ugričić-Ilić, who left the SNS-led group in the assembly in the morning to join the DS group."