LDP: DS principles unacceptable

LDP leader Cedomir Jovanovic says it won’t be possible to form a government on the principles proposed by the DS. Although he offers post-election cooperation to the coalition of parties gathered around the Democratic Party (DS), Jovanovic does not believe that it will be possible to establish it on the principles set out by President and DS leader Boris Tadic, because “these principles are the ones that (Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav) Kostunica based his last two governments on, and which have ruined Serbia.” LDP: DS principles unacceptable “Instead of talking about a better life and standard of living, we say that we will put an end to the bad privatization of NIS (the Serbian Oil Industry). Instead of talking about cooperation with the Hague, we say that we will arrest war criminals (Ratko) Mladic and (Radovan) Karadzic, and destroy the policy that was responsible for genocide. Instead of talking about corruption, we say that we will depoliticize the economy and dismantle the party-state which the two previous governments set up,” Jovanovic said in an interview for the Thursday issue of Belgrade daily Blic. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader said that “all of Serbia’s key problems have their cause, and we cannot view them purely as a consequence that will solve itself once DS and G17 Plus ministers take the place of Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) ministers.” “If we tackle corruption and crime, I want to hear what the causes of that failure were, because if those principles are still present today, then Tadic’s principles are nothing but propaganda and exhausted political spin,” he warned. Jovanovic said that, for the time being, “room for an agreement between the LDP and the DS in the election campaign is spent, and we’re waiting for Tadic on May 12 in the same place we are today.” Speaking of Kosovo, the LDP leader told Serbs “to think of themselves and the future of their families, and that their future cannot improve by turning Kosovska Mitrovica into Beirut.” “The new government has to drop these sayings and myths, and, together with the Albanians, with the help of the international community, devise a plan to start a process to show that Serbia really has changed, and build special ties between Serbia and Kosovo,” he said. Asked how the DS and the LDP differed on their positions vis-à-vis the EU, Jovanovic said that the LDP “viewed Europe without any strings attached, while the DS viewed Europe as a platform, from which, allegedly, to fight a more effective battle for national aims than is possible today from Serbia itself.” Cedomir Jovanovic (FoNet, archive)

LDP: DS principles unacceptable

“Instead of talking about a better life and standard of living, we say that we will put an end to the bad privatization of NIS (the Serbian Oil Industry). Instead of talking about cooperation with the Hague, we say that we will arrest war criminals (Ratko) Mladić and (Radovan) Karadžić, and destroy the policy that was responsible for genocide. Instead of talking about corruption, we say that we will depoliticize the economy and dismantle the party-state which the two previous governments set up,” Jovanović said in an interview for the Thursday issue of Belgrade daily Blic.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader said that “all of Serbia’s key problems have their cause, and we cannot view them purely as a consequence that will solve itself once DS and G17 Plus ministers take the place of Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) ministers.”

“If we tackle corruption and crime, I want to hear what the causes of that failure were, because if those principles are still present today, then Tadić’s principles are nothing but propaganda and exhausted political spin,” he warned.

Jovanović said that, for the time being, “room for an agreement between the LDP and the DS in the election campaign is spent, and we’re waiting for Tadić on May 12 in the same place we are today.”

Speaking of Kosovo, the LDP leader told Serbs “to think of themselves and the future of their families, and that their future cannot improve by turning Kosovska Mitrovica into Beirut.”

“The new government has to drop these sayings and myths, and, together with the Albanians, with the help of the international community, devise a plan to start a process to show that Serbia really has changed, and build special ties between Serbia and Kosovo,” he said.

Asked how the DS and the LDP differed on their positions vis-à-vis the EU, Jovanović said that the LDP “viewed Europe without any strings attached, while the DS viewed Europe as a platform, from which, allegedly, to fight a more effective battle for national aims than is possible today from Serbia itself.”