SPS-PUPS-JS ink pre-election coalition deal

SPS-PUPS-JS ink pre-election coalition deal

The agreement was signed by SPS President Ivica Dačić, JS President Dragan Marković Palma, and PUPS Deputy President Milan Krkobabić.

The same coalition stood for the general elections in 2008 and 2012, and the SPS leader stated that there were no negotiations with other parties on possible enlargement of the political alliance.

The SPS-PUPS-JS stands ready to continue to change Serbia, work on the establishment of rule of law, and carry on with the fight against organized crime and corruption and the defence of the basic values of social justice, Dačić said at a joint press conference.

He underlined that "the core of the coalition's operation is the defense of workers' interests and the ones who make their own living."

Dačić denied that the coalition "ever hindered reforms," stressing that "only those reforms which result in the reduction of workers' rights are not good."

He said that his cabinet "did not fall because it did not work well, but because it was agreed that full, greater legitimacy is needed for the future government."

Asked whether he expects a post-election coalition with the SNS, Dačić said that "the SNS and the SPS-PUPS-JS coalition will win a landslide majority," adding that possible participation in the new government may be tabled only after the voting has taken place.

"Today nobody can say how the government will be formed, we will discuss this after elections with the Serb Progressive Party," Dačić said.

He also strongly criticized opposition leaders Dragan Đilas, Boris Tadić, Čedomor Jovanović, and Nenad Čanak, and said they "wanted to join a coalition with the SNS."

He went on to say that the goal of the opposition's accusations that SNS leader and outgoing First Deputy PM Aleksandar Vučić was creating an autocratic regime and introducing a dictatorship was for those who criticize him to join the government.

"Tadić and the other gods of democracy, Amon-Ra, Zeus, and others. Come down to earth a little bit. There's no vaccine to ensure your return to power, you are the past," Dačić said.

After Dragan Marković Palma addressed the same news conference enthusiastically praising Dačić, the SPS leader "had to ask him not to go over the top," Beta news agency reported.

Dačić, Marković and Krkobabić all said that their coalition would continue to function after the elections.