Novi Sad: The initiative on erecting a monument to those who died in the fall of the canopy was adopted

44 councilors out of 56 present voted for the initiative, and there were no abstentions or votes against, while the opposition councilors left the hall before the vote.

Mićin said that the monument should be built on the basis of a public competition within a reasonable period of time, and it will represent a permanent material trace in the culture of memory, and as basic elements it will contain the written names of the victims and the injured, as well as information about the tragic event.

He also said that he considered it his duty and obligation to make sure that the victims are never forgotten and that by permanently marking the place of the tragedy, it will be shown that they will remain in the memory of the entire community.

He stated that it will be a place of remembrance, but also a reminder to do things differently.

He thanked the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments for the response they provided, along with the basic elements of the monument, which, he said, will represent a permanent trace of the culture of remembering the tragedy that befell us.

He pointed out that a public competition will be held with the aim of finding a suitable conceptual solution for the monument and rejected the opposition's claims that erecting the monument relativizes responsibility.

"I will ask you to support the initiative and to mark the place of suffering in a dignified way, to make this a place of remembrance, but also a warning to not allow something like that to happen again," Mićin said at the session.

The SNS and SPS councilors supported the initiative, while the opposition representatives said during the debate that they were not against erecting the monument, but criticized the fact that the initiative was submitted by the mayor as a representative of the government, which, they claim, did not establish responsibility for the tragedy.

SNS councilor Biljana Pantić Pilja said that the opposition has been using the tragedy for political purposes for nine months.

"I wrote 12 hours after that event that I expect those responsible to resign because that is how political responsibility is shown, and for the court to determine criminal responsibility. There must not be people protected, whoever is responsible must be held accountable, but you are not the one from the opposition who will say who is responsible because there is a system in this country. There is a judiciary and a prosecutor's office and they need to determine who is responsible, and the court proceedings are ongoing. No one can be convicted without completing the court proceedings. I am sorry that you took advantage of standing at the lectern, of being filmed for social networks to score political points," said Pantić Pilja.

The members of the opposition demanded that the initiative be withdrawn until, as member of the National Movement of Serbia Boris Fejdi said, the investigation is completed and until it is determined who is responsible.

Member of Serbia Center Jasmina Ilić said that this party cannot support the initiative because, as she said, it would mean accepting the redirection of responsibility into the symbolism of remembrance, and Miran Pogačar from the civil movement Bravo said that there is no person who is against the monument, but that it is of crucial importance, as he said, who erects the monument.

The session of the Assembly of the City of Novi Sad ended with the adoption of several other decisions, among other reports on the operations of public companies, as well as on traffic safety and the report on the execution of the budget in the first six months of this year.

In the meantime, a protest was held in front of the City Assembly in Novi Sad by a small group of students in the lockout and citizens who support them, dissatisfied that this agenda item was included in the session because, as they stated, "no one has yet been held accountable for the fall of the canopy, and the initiative for the monument is being adopted."

The protest, which started this morning before the beginning of the session, ended a little before 2:00 p.m. when traffic was reestablished on Žarko Zrenjanin Street in front of the City Assembly.