DS: Govt. by end of week

Talks between the Democratic Party (DS) and the SPS over forming a new government should be over by the end of next week, says senior DS official Bojan Pajtic. “From the very first day after the elections it was clear that a pro-European majority existed in parliament, which, I believe, will reach a technical agreement in the coming days over which party receives which ministries and posts in the government,“ said Pajtic, president of the Vojvodina Executive Council. DS: Govt. by end of week He said that the DS would make sure that a majority suiting its strategic aims would also be formed at Belgrade level. However, Pajtic did not wish to reveal whether he was in the running for the post of prime minister, only saying that what was much more important were “the policies that the government pursues.“ The DS official said that he believed that the solution for the post of Belgrade mayor was not only “an important internal, but also international, political issue,“ adding that an excellent example of this was Novi Sad, which, he said, was all too well aware of the negative consequences of having a local government that did not communicate with the world, and did not attract any foreign investment. “That’s why it would be exceptionally bad if the Belgrade mayor was a Radical, and we want to prevent this,“ he said, adding that the DS would certainly insist on Belgrade being part of the agreement, and that he did not see anything that the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) could find divisive there. As far as Vojvodina was concerned, Pajtic said that there were no problems there, and that an agreement would soon be reached. The DS official said that the new provincial government would not differ greatly to the current one. He said that the SPS’s participation in such a government was dependent on an agreement being reached at republic level. “There’s no denying that there are differences between ourselves and the SPS in terms of political perspective and history, which is why we have an emotional reluctance to cooperate with the SPS. But, if that is a condition for this country to move forward, we have nothing against fulfilling that condition because we’re doing so in the interests of our future,“ Pajtic reflected. Bojan Pajtic (B92, archive)

DS: Govt. by end of week

He said that the DS would make sure that a majority suiting its strategic aims would also be formed at Belgrade level.

However, Pajtić did not wish to reveal whether he was in the running for the post of prime minister, only saying that what was much more important were “the policies that the government pursues.“

The DS official said that he believed that the solution for the post of Belgrade mayor was not only “an important internal, but also international, political issue,“ adding that an excellent example of this was Novi Sad, which, he said, was all too well aware of the negative consequences of having a local government that did not communicate with the world, and did not attract any foreign investment.

“That’s why it would be exceptionally bad if the Belgrade mayor was a Radical, and we want to prevent this,“ he said, adding that the DS would certainly insist on Belgrade being part of the agreement, and that he did not see anything that the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) could find divisive there.

As far as Vojvodina was concerned, Pajtić said that there were no problems there, and that an agreement would soon be reached.

The DS official said that the new provincial government would not differ greatly to the current one.

He said that the SPS’s participation in such a government was dependent on an agreement being reached at republic level.

“There’s no denying that there are differences between ourselves and the SPS in terms of political perspective and history, which is why we have an emotional reluctance to cooperate with the SPS. But, if that is a condition for this country to move forward, we have nothing against fulfilling that condition because we’re doing so in the interests of our future,“ Pajtić reflected.