Heated debate over G17 Plus resignations

Heated debate over G17 Plus resignations

The Democrats’ Dušan Petrović said lawmakers from his party were ready to vote in favor of revoking deputy Public prosecutor Milorad Cvijović’s immunity, but that the parliament was facing another obligation – verifying G17 Plus ministers’ resignations. According to him, the government already fell, since the ruling coalition was unable to scrape together 126 votes.

G17 Plus parliamentary group chief Miloljub Albijanić accused both the Radicals and the Democrats of “protecting criminals by insisting on resignations”. According to him, G17 Plus ministers have resigned, but have also reached an agreement with the PM to activate the resignations after the constitutional referendum.

“If someone wishes to resign in a way that will be verified by the parliament, I invite them to do so by the end of this session or on Wednesday evening when I return from Hungary, and I will distribute those resignations to the members of the parliament within 24 hours”, Serbian parliament speaker Predrag Marković said.

Aleksandar Vučić accused G17 Plus of having “lied” about the ministers’ resignations, and the ruling coalition of destroying the country’s legal system , after which the Radicals left the parliament.

Finance minister Mlađan Dinkić said earlier the ministers’ resignations will be ”activated” a day after the referendum.

“It’s very clear, we submitted the resignations to the prime minister and the parliament speaker on September 29. After PM Koštunica invited us to take part in the constitution adoption process on October 2, we decided to accept the activation of our resignations one day after the referendum”, Dinkić said.

He also said that the fact the parliament was debating G17 Plus ministers’ resignations meant that some parliamentary groups and strong lobbies wanted to avoid stripping Milorad Cvijović of his immunity. The deputy state prosecutor is suspected of taking part in organized crime activities.

The DS and SRS lawmakers yesterday conditioned Cvijović’s immunity debate on the parliament accepting G17 Plus ministers’ resignations.

“There are at least two grave inconsistencies there. One is the fact Dinkić’s resignation was  recorded by the government on September 29, but is dated October 1”, the DS deputy president Dušan Petrović said.