Opposition DSS party likely to expel its former leader

Opposition DSS party likely to expel its former leader

The request to remove Vukadinovic, a member (deputy) of the Serbian National Assembly, from the DSS club was not accepted by the club's chief, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic and by Slavisa Ristic.

Raskovic-Ivic, who until recently served as the party's leader, told Beta that both she and Ristic will "in all likelihood, as things now stand" be expelled from the party.

"This is a precedent. I cannot think of somebody else expelling and chasing away their former president, who led the party back into parliament after its previous collapse," Raskovic-Ivic said.

She added it was "incredible" that the party's new leadership was "bothered the most" by the parliamentary club, despite all the other problems, and said the club "made no mistakes, and never departed from the party's ideology and policies."

According to Raskovic-Ivic, the new DSS leadership will manage to do what PM and ruling SNS leader Aleksandar Vucic failed to achieve, i.e., "marginalize the DSS through electoral fraud so that it is not represented in parliament."

She also said that Vukadinovic was "not an issue at all, but a reason that was very skillfully introduced so they (new leadership) could force those they cannot control out of the party."

"The DSS is a party that builds its policy on the defense of Kosovo and Metohija and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country, not on defending local coalitions in (Belgrade municipalities) Vracar and Vozdovac. What signaled the collapse of the party was 12 members from Kosovo and Metohija leaving the Main Committee," said Raskovic-Ivic.

She said that if the Executive Committee's decision is implemented, she and Ristic will act as independent members of parliament, adding that they would always remain faithful to the democratic and national principles.

"It was the idea of my father Jovan Raskovic (former political leader of Serbs in Croatia). The DSS was the best framework to realize these ideas. This idea was not given to me by the DSS, I grew up with this idea," said Raskovic-Ivic.

The conflict within the DSS was sparked by the decision to join the SNS in local coalitions in two Belgrade municipalities.

Due to this decision, Raskovic-Ivic stepped down as the party's president, while Kosovo-based members of the Main Committee left this body, with some leaving the party as well.

However, a group of senior DSS officials announced earlier that the main reason for the conflict within the party was "a disagreement on a joint presidential candidate of the opposition - and not local coalitions with the Serb Progressive Party (SNS),"

One of the new DSS vice presidents, Milos Jovanovic, believes that disagreements on the state policy between the DSS and other parties should not be an obstacle to forging coalitions at the local level.