Photo: You Tube screenshotThe draft law on the management of business companies has arrived in the National Assembly. If that law is adopted, a group of powerful people will be able to manage Serbia's forests, mountains, waters, and nuclear facilities. After that, it is no longer important who is the government or who is the opposition in the country, only the leaders of Serbia will be asked about everything important, and that according to the law.
It was raining over Belgrade. The smell of incense and the sound of church bells wafted intoxicatingly through the streets of the capital. The Spasovdan litany was passing by. Thousands of citizens traditionally celebrated the city's glory. The Serbian Patriarch, the clergy, members of the Serbian Army and the Gendarmerie in ceremonial uniforms carried the coffin with the relics of Saint Bishop Nikolaj.
Litija stopped near the "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School so that the citizens could pray for the students, youth and people who suffered in the recent massacres in that school and in the villages of Mladenovac, as well as for all the victims of family violence and any other violence.
On the same day, in the Church of St. Sava, President Aleksandar Vučić lit candles with the parents of the girl, the last victim of the school massacre. He posted a photo of that act on his official Instagram account.
And, on the same day, while the candles were burning, the incense was smelling, and the bells were ringing, the Government of Serbia held its 56th session, where the first item on the agenda was: Proposal for a law on the management of companies owned by the Republic of Serbia.
The gates of hell
From that moment on, the gates of hell were opened. Only, hardly anyone looks at that hell, massacres, Kosovo, protests, counter-demonstrations are happening at the same time... The government has decided that right now is the most convenient moment to start the final sale of Serbia and to do it all according to the law. The proposal reached the Assembly this Friday. The law will soon be voted on. People's deputies will decide whether all the national treasures of this country will end up in economic and financial hell: waters, forests, mountains, national parks, nuclear facilities of Serbia...
The law foresees that 23 public companies (JP) will change their legal form to a joint-stock company (AD) or a limited liability company (DOO) in the following period.
If this proposal is adopted according to data from the APR, public companies, among others, will no longer exist: Srbijašume, Srbijavode, Nuclear facilities of Serbia - Vinča, national parks Kopaonik, Đerdap, Tara, Fruška Gora.
The law gives the possibility to change the ownership structure of public companies, which are otherwise established for the interests and needs of citizens, without privatization.
The interest of citizens is not important
The fact that the law mentions the term "capital company" actually means that the state no longer has to be the sole owner of a company of public interest.
The interest of citizens will no longer be important, but the greater profit of managers of natural resources and companies of the greatest public interest.
It is worrisome that such a law would be adopted at the time of the government, which has not dealt with systemic corruption for a decade, but regularly engages in it.
With the new law, Serbia could become the biggest money launderer on the planet. While dirty money is laundered through various recapitalizations, dubious loans and conversions, citizens can expect to pay for water at economic, instead of the previous social prices, while forests are being turned into construction land.
Corrupt businessmen and politicians would no longer have to hide money in secret accounts on exotic islands and in the Emirates. They can invest it in these strategic state treasures that will change the legal form and thus legalize all the bribes they received.
According to this draft law, PEs should become capital companies with the legal form of joint stock company (JSC) or limited liability company (DOO) in which the state has the capacity of a member, i.e. a shareholder with more than 50 percent of the company's basic capital, as well as a company in which Serbia has controlling ownership on another basis.
Steam washing
However, when a public company turns into a joint-stock company, the conditions are created that in some transactions that company is under the control of the one who brings in the money, namely dirty money, say the mafia. In the mixed ownership of a joint-stock company, the rule applies: "As much money, as much music."
Such a decision also opens numerous possibilities, such as various recapitalizations. Let's say a company is worth a million euros and has a thousand shares, then the owners of the company or the shareholders' meeting decide on recapitalization, and then some other private company invests another million euros and becomes a co-owner of 49 percent of the ownership.
Or, the future joint stock company, for example, Vinca Nuclear Facilities, is looking for a loan. Then the money arrives from some private company and then Vinča fails to repay the loan and the debt is converted into ownership. And what if the loan came from some not-so-famous private company, which got stronger only when it also received a dubious loan from abroad - and the lenders are, for example, under covert ownership, the Colombian cartel or the Italian mafia. Yes, that would mean that the drug dealers become the real managers of Vinci - the place where the excellent mathematicians, physicists, chemists of this country work.
Even for the most experienced lawyers and financial police officers, it is difficult to keep track of the flows of money that pass through various firms in order to buy shares. That is exactly why joint-stock companies are the easiest prey for those "whose name is not pronounced".
The MPs will decide whether this hell for all citizens will actually be a paradise for new tycoons. Powerful people from all over the world, China, Europe, America, Russia will have a chance, and through intermediaries it is a good opportunity for, say, the Ndrangheta - the biggest mafia on the planet, which has been connected with Serbian criminals for decades. It is the murderous Ndrangheta who are known for "offers that cannot be refused" and now imagine a director of Srbijavoda or Tara National Park facing them.
If the law is adopted, the managers of Serbia's national treasures will become the masters of the lives of all its citizens. Because when a group of powerful people manage the forests, mountains, waters, and nuclear facilities of a country, it no longer matters who is in power or who is the opposition in that country, only the new managers of Serbia will be asked about everything important, and that according to the law. Citizens will be left with processions and lighting candles, while the bells are ringing - after us.
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
The student movement and future MPs are seeking an agreement on who decides on the composition and program of the new Government, writes "Vreme" in its new issue. While the consultations are ongoing, the program of more than a thousand pages is already ready
For Aleksandar Vučić, the consequences of the change of his government will be economic collapse, departure of foreign investors from Serbia, mass layoffs, jeopardy of pension payments, instability of the banking system, spread of crime. All in all - a cataclysm
In the midst of the arrests of politicians and businessmen after the defeat of the Aleksandar Vučić regime in the elections, the controversial businessman Zvonko Veselinović traveled to Turkey.
The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade rejects the report of the Supreme Public Prosecution Commission as "malicious" and "baseless", accusing its members of exceeding their powers and intimidating prosecutors.
The Student Movement announced that representatives of the Student List will not participate in Informer TV programs. As the reason, they cite years of violation of the professional and legal standards of that television.
At the moment when the institutions of the Republic are destroyed, when Vučić's octopus is still alive, when people are disgusted by the injustice and the stench left behind by the Essenes regime, we have, as Machiavelli said, only civic virtue as the fuel with which we can return to the beginning
The four independent members of REM are an example of perseverance and civic responsibility. Rodoljub Šabić even, upon leaving the premises of REM, after the sentencing of the Informer, experienced that the Essenes insulted him, hit him with their hands and feet. But that too will soon be over
Vučić pardoned the batterers and Dijana Hrkalović. The election winners should abolish the sultan's power that allows one man to run afoul of the entire judicial system
Time explores: The construction of the St. Sava Temple
Did the money paid by the Government to SPC end up in Moscow through Alta Bank? subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
