In his 32nd televised address to the nation in the last 40 days, this time in the morning program on TV Pink, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Sunday, among other things, that he will not sign the law on same-sex marriage even if the National Assembly votes for it. He said that he will not sign a law that would define a third gender in addition to male and female, "or something called gender fluid - one day you feel like a woman, the next you feel like a man. All that madness that exists in those vok movements... Let it exist in your country, it won't in Serbia."
Belgrade Pride soon condemned that statement of the President of the Republic in the strongest terms, reminding that it is "just one of a series of discriminatory statements that Vučić makes to the LGBTI+ community."
Discrimination against citizens
The president of the country, as Belgrade Pride points out in a statement, "does not have the right to divide and discriminate citizens based on his personal opinion."
"Laws are passed on the basis of the personal affinities of politicians in autocratic and dictatorial regimes, and President Vučić claims that Serbia is not like that." We remind the president that the adoption of the Law on Same-Sex Unions is an international obligation of Serbia, that it is included in the action plans of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, and that the government has promised to adopt the Law several times so far," the statement emphasized.
Belgrade Pride requests that the Draft Law, which is already ready, be urgently sent to the parliamentary procedure.
"The Constitution of Serbia prohibits any form of discrimination and we expect the president to respect the highest legislative act and all citizens of Serbia," Belgrade Pride said, recalling that in 2015 the European Court of Human Rights issued a verdict in the case of Oliari and others against Italy, in which says that every country that is a member of the Council of Europe, and Serbia has been since 2003, must legally regulate same-sex unions.
Deterioration of the position of the LGBTI+ community
The last statement of President Vučić is another proof of why the peaceful and successful holding of Pride is important in the fight for a more equal society in which there is room for everyone, it was stated in the announcement, noting that "the position of the LGBTI+ community has drastically worsened in the last year, and that as a result of the negative campaign, which was conducted due to the holding of last year's EuroPride, in which the President of Serbia also participated, there was an increase in physical and verbal violence against LGBTI+ persons".
Belgrade Pride 2023 will be held from September 4 to 10 under the slogan "We're not even close", and the goal is to remind the seven demands of Belgrade Pride that have not been fulfilled since 2014. Some of them refer to the adoption of the Law on Same-Sex Unions and the Law on Gender Identity and the Rights of Intersex Persons.
Powers of the President of the Republic
Vučić did not explain to the citizens that the President of the Republic of Serbia has no authority to prevent the passing of any law.
The President of the Republic may, with a written explanation, return the voted law to the National Assembly for reconsideration only if he considers that the law does not agree with the Constitution or that it is in conflict with confirmed international treaties or generally accepted rules of international law, or that the procedure that was not followed during the adoption of the law prescribed for the adoption of the law or that the law does not regulate an area in an appropriate manner.
If the deputies decide to vote again on the same law, it is voted by the majority of the total number of deputies, which makes a qualitative difference compared to the original vote where a majority of the deputies present was required. If the parliament were to vote again on the restored law, it would again be before the president, who would then have the constitutional obligation to promulgate it.
MN/FoNet
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