LDP: New elections "pointless"

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Cedomir Jovanovic says that to call elections at this point would be “pointless.” Jovanovic said that the time was still not ripe for them to constitute an opportunity for a turning point for society as a whole, and for defining a policy that would be an answer to the current crisis. LDP: New elections "pointless" “No sensible state is thinking about elections now. If a government can’t function, then the problem is bad policy, and this policy cannot be put forward in the form of some other arrangement and claim that it would be more efficient as such—rather, it has to be changed completely,” Jovanovic underlined in an interview for Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti, published on Friday. The LDP leader said that the activities of his party would head in two directions, “towards the Law on Vojvodina's Jurisdictions, whereby we would maximize the right to autonomy, and a parallel intensification of substantial Constitutional reform.” “It was clear that Vojvodina could not be reformed through its Statute,” he said, pointing out that the LDP had “highlighted in time the damage that the Democratic Party and its coalition partner had done to Vojvodina with their superficial marketing campaign that Vojvodina's most important legal act had come down to,” Jovanovic explained. "Embarrassing Vojvodina is not the way to make Serbia stronger. Serbia has no problem with the degree of Vojvodina’s autonomy, but with the lack of democratic values in its institutions and political life,“ said the LDP leader. He said that the government had offered incomplete and superficial changes to the Parliamentary Code of Procedure “that will, as a result, create new, instead of old, chaos.“ “The crisis in parliament is not just a product of the wide chasm between the government and opposition. It is staged too, but it’s gone too far, from the level of a daily campaign into uncontrolled hysteria,“ Jovanovic noted. Stating that the “atmosphere that parliament works in is unacceptable,“ but that the problem had to be resolved through an agreement, the LDP leader said that “the current situation in parliament suits the Radicals, who, through the feud between the Seselj and Nikolic factions, are paralyzing parliamentary life.“ “However, the government must shoulder some of the blame too, seeing in their feud an opportunity for themselves, even though it means destroying parliament in the process,“ he stressed. Cedomir Jovanovic (FoNet, archive)

LDP: New elections "pointless"

“No sensible state is thinking about elections now. If a government can’t function, then the problem is bad policy, and this policy cannot be put forward in the form of some other arrangement and claim that it would be more efficient as such—rather, it has to be changed completely,” Jovanović underlined in an interview for Belgrade daily Večernje Novosti, published on Friday.

The LDP leader said that the activities of his party would head in two directions, “towards the Law on Vojvodina's Jurisdictions, whereby we would maximize the right to autonomy, and a parallel intensification of substantial Constitutional reform.”

“It was clear that Vojvodina could not be reformed through its Statute,” he said, pointing out that the LDP had “highlighted in time the damage that the Democratic Party and its coalition partner had done to Vojvodina with their superficial marketing campaign that Vojvodina's most important legal act had come down to,” Jovanović explained.

"Embarrassing Vojvodina is not the way to make Serbia stronger. Serbia has no problem with the degree of Vojvodina’s autonomy, but with the lack of democratic values in its institutions and political life,“ said the LDP leader.

He said that the government had offered incomplete and superficial changes to the Parliamentary Code of Procedure “that will, as a result, create new, instead of old, chaos.“

“The crisis in parliament is not just a product of the wide chasm between the government and opposition. It is staged too, but it’s gone too far, from the level of a daily campaign into uncontrolled hysteria,“ Jovanović noted.

Stating that the “atmosphere that parliament works in is unacceptable,“ but that the problem had to be resolved through an agreement, the LDP leader said that “the current situation in parliament suits the Radicals, who, through the feud between the Šešelj and Nikolić factions, are paralyzing parliamentary life.“

“However, the government must shoulder some of the blame too, seeing in their feud an opportunity for themselves, even though it means destroying parliament in the process,“ he stressed.