Parliament discusses budget rebalance

Parliament discusses budget rebalance

The proposed rebalancing plans an income of 521.3 billion dinars, expenses of 505.8 billion dinars and a budget surplus of 15.5 billion dinars.

Socialist Party of Serbia leader Ivica Dačić told B92 that his party will ask to meet with the senior officials of the Democratic Party of Serbia before the voting, in order to discuss the future status of the G17 Plus party.

“It is unacceptable for us to vote for G17, and have them exit the government in two to three days, and at the same time use their state positions for promoting their own party and to join the opposition in the next elections. We want clear answers for those questions, our relations towards the new constitution and towards all other questions that depend on what is written in the constitution. It is unacceptable for us to have the status of Vojvodina be similar to the one of Kosovo, nothing in the new constitution can provide a basis for a future secession of any part of Serbia.” Dačić said.

Dragan Bujošević, a journalist for weekly NIN, said that the socialists are clearly afraid of losing their position in the future government after the elections are held once the new constitution is adopted.

“The socialists cannot allow themselves to oppose the rebalancing of the budget, if a part of the rebalance money is needed for the constitutional referendum, in which it will be stated that Kosovo will forever be a part of Serbia. They cannot allow themselves to be against this, I think that they will most likely ask for something from Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, to see what is happening, whether they will be coalition partners in the future. They are afraid of a coalition between the Democratic Party of Serbia and the Democratic Party, which could come into power after the elections, without the socialists.” Bujošević said.

The Democratic Party has not decided yet whether it will attend today’s meeting and party officials told B92 that they did not wish to comment the budget rebalancing.

Economic analyst and professor, Dejan Erić, told B92 that it is unusual for the state to have a surplus, and that the question of how to spend that money remains.

“I think that the transferring of the funds for the use of the investment plan is a relatively good decision on the part of the Government, taking into consideration that one of the greatest problems that the Serbian economy is facing is of a structural nature and investing into certain infrastructural projects and other buildings could help improve the structure, and it could be of general interest and help increase the speed of economic development.” Erić said.

Erić said that in such cases, the budget rebalancing is looked at in economic terms rather than its political aspects.

“What is certain is that political tensions could effect the realization of the decision, but this is more of an economic thing and is linked to the interest of the country. The country’s interest is to have things change, for investments to begin after a long period of time and to start up the economy. I would look at this in a wider context: regardless of the government, the more general national interests need to be looked at, and the investment plan certainly fits into that.” Erić said.

As far as the referendum for the new constitution is concerned, the Serbian Government has set aside 586 million dinars for that purpose.

LDP calls for boycott of constitution

The Liberal-Democratic Party’s youth group organized a protest today in front of the parliament called “Boycott the Constitution of Heavenly Serbia.”

The political party’s youth organization’s President Marko Živković called on citizens to boycott the constitution offered by Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, which is supported by Tomislav Nikolić, Ivica Dačić, Mlađan Dinkić and Ratko Mladić.

“Such politics announce new conflicts with the democratic world, and the Serbian people paid the price for these politics from 1998 in 1999.” Živković said.

About a hundred LDP supporters gathered in front of the parliament and directed insults and whistled at radical and socialist officials as they entered the building.