DSS: No more contact with Democrats

The DSS vice-president says all contact with the Democrats has been cut off since the fall of the government. Aleksandar Popovic, who is also the energy and mining minister, said that since the government's fall, all inter-party consultations with coalition partners had been suspended because of the serious differences regarding basic policy on Kosovo. DSS: No more contact with Democrats “We have working relations, which are characteristic for a technical government, with Deputy Prime Minister (Bozidar) Djelic and the DS (Democratic Party) members of government. But if you are asking me about inter-party relations, it is only logical, because of the present circumstances, that there are no such relations,” Popovic said in an interview for the Friday issue of daily Blic, when asked whether the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) was holding consultations with the DS. The DSS vice-president said that once the EULEX Mission was sent to Kosovo, it needed to be established how the EU viewed Serbia—intact or crippled. “I don’t see what's bad or nasty in wanting to clarify this matter, and not to simply do as they tell us,” he explained. Popovic said that the DSS was not prepared to do anything that could be characterized as indirectly accepting the destruction of its own country and stressed that “the cracks in the government had appeared still earlier.“ “First of all, at a time of turmoil and by contravening election law, without agreement in the coalition, they called presidential elections in order, as can be seen now, for them to be over before the fake state’s unilateral declaration of independence,“ said the minister. He said that another cabinet meeting had been postponed earlier, a week before the unilateral declaration, because the DS and G17 Plus had insisted on signing the political agreement with the EU, which had no point, other than to show that “we were on good terms, just at the moment the EULEX mission was being sent.“ “The DSS opposed this. I really wonder if they still think that that agreement should have been signed,“ Popovic continued. The DSS vice-president said that “the ideas that the DSS is founded on are different to those of the DS, and to the coalition that the DS has gathered, and to the ideas of the Serb Radical Party (SRS), but in politics there is no way of measuring divergence or proximity of ideas.” “The fact is that New Serbia and ourselves are standing together at the elections because of our great similarities, or the identicity of our manifestos. It’s a bit insulting for Serbian citizens when everyone talks about post-election coalitions, and no-one about the elections themselves or manifestos,” he complained. Aleksandar Popovic (FoNet, archive)

DSS: No more contact with Democrats

“We have working relations, which are characteristic for a technical government, with Deputy Prime Minister (Božidar) Đelić and the DS (Democratic Party) members of government. But if you are asking me about inter-party relations, it is only logical, because of the present circumstances, that there are no such relations,” Popović said in an interview for the Friday issue of daily Blic, when asked whether the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) was holding consultations with the DS.

The DSS vice-president said that once the EULEX Mission was sent to Kosovo, it needed to be established how the EU viewed Serbia—intact or crippled.

“I don’t see what's bad or nasty in wanting to clarify this matter, and not to simply do as they tell us,” he explained.

Popović said that the DSS was not prepared to do anything that could be characterized as indirectly accepting the destruction of its own country and stressed that “the cracks in the government had appeared still earlier.“

“First of all, at a time of turmoil and by contravening election law, without agreement in the coalition, they called presidential elections in order, as can be seen now, for them to be over before the fake state’s unilateral declaration of independence,“ said the minister.

He said that another cabinet meeting had been postponed earlier, a week before the unilateral declaration, because the DS and G17 Plus had insisted on signing the political agreement with the EU, which had no point, other than to show that “we were on good terms, just at the moment the EULEX mission was being sent.“

“The DSS opposed this. I really wonder if they still think that that agreement should have been signed,“ Popović continued.

The DSS vice-president said that “the ideas that the DSS is founded on are different to those of the DS, and to the coalition that the DS has gathered, and to the ideas of the Serb Radical Party (SRS), but in politics there is no way of measuring divergence or proximity of ideas.”

“The fact is that New Serbia and ourselves are standing together at the elections because of our great similarities, or the identicity of our manifestos. It’s a bit insulting for Serbian citizens when everyone talks about post-election coalitions, and no-one about the elections themselves or manifestos,” he complained.