A repeat of the elections in Belgrade is increasingly certain. Aleksandar Šapić invited the mandate holders to discuss cooperation. The "We - Voice of the People" movement says again that it will not support anyone, but the position of its councilor Aleksandar Jerković remains unclear.
Have Branimir Nestorović and the Movement "We - galas iz narod" put an end to the story that the people of Belgrade will go to the polls again? Judging by today's announcement, there are new elections for the Assembly of the City of Belgrade. But, as usually happens in Serbian politics, there is one big "but".
SNS vice-president and candidate for mayor, Aleksandar Šapić, issued a public invitation to all mandate holders in the Belgrade City Assembly, and above all to the list "We - Voice of the People, Aleksandar Jerković", to discuss potential cooperation and plans for the development of Belgrade if they wish. in the next four years.
"Given that the City Election Commission at yesterday's session assigned councilor mandates and that the deadline for the constitution of the Belgrade City Assembly starts today, as I announced after the election, I am sending a public invitation to all mandate holders in the Belgrade City Assembly, and above all to the list" We - Voice of the People, Aleksandar Jerković, that if they want, we can discuss potential cooperation and plans for the development of Belgrade in the next four years and how we will make our city even better and more beautiful," said Aleksandar Šapić.
Quick response
Even earlier, the Coalition of HOPE announced that they would not discuss the formation of a majority with Šapić, and the response to today's call came very quickly from the "We - Voice of the People" Movement.
"Due to the public invitation of SNS Vice-President and candidate for mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, to talks about potential cooperation and plans for the development of Belgrade in the next four years, WE - VOICE OF THE PEOPLE takes this opportunity to publicly reiterate our position that we do not support a coalition with either the SNS-SPS coalition or with the potential coalition of Serbia against violence and NADA", according to the statement published on the official Telegram channel.
It is further stated: "We are interested in assuming full responsibility in the government, without making compromises with the current way of governing of all post-October 6th authorities, and that is neither realistic nor fair to expect with our XNUMX mandates." If a new city majority is not formed without us and new elections are called, now as a parliamentary list we will have a better opportunity to present our plan and program for managing Belgrade, which will give voters a clearer choice than the one they had in the previous elections."
That one "but"
However, one enigma remains, and its name is Aleksandar Jerković, who was the holder of the list "We - the voice of the people" in the Belgrade elections.
On Monday, he sent a press release asking for a meeting with representatives of his list.
Jerkovic, who now introduced himself as a member of the Patriotic Movement "There is no turning back, Serbia is behind" which is in coalition with Nestorovic's list, states that it is very important that the election process was officially completed within the legally prescribed time limit and thanks everyone who participated in the elections , and especially to those citizens who supported the "We are the voice of the people" coalition, which was led by prof. Dr. Branimir Nestorović, on the republican list and Aleksandar Jerković, the president of that movement on the Belgrade list (the movement "There is no going back is Serbia" in 2021 was founded by General Božidar Delić, Albert Andijev and Aleksandar Jerković).
In the announcement, he also says that "all the voters who went to the polls are important, because they showed civic responsibility, but we especially thank those who contributed to the victory of the newspaper "Mi glas iz naroda - Aleksandar Jerković" in the Belgrade elections with 5,4% votes".
"Thus, they gave us the opportunity and obliged us to influence the better future of Belgrade, which is the driving force of Serbia in every sense, economically, socially and culturally." We expect that our coalition partners from the "Mi" association will soon respond positively to our invitation to organize a joint meeting, where we will exchange views, not only on the issue of decisions concerning the Belgrade elections, but also on current events in Kosmet, as well as on the continuation of the future cooperation. After that, we will address the public," the Information Service of the movement "There is no turning back is Serbia" stated in a statement delivered to the media by Jerković.
How much for most?
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the holders of mandates are MPs, that is, defenders, and not parties and electoral lists.
In the Belgrade elections, the Serbian Progressive Party won 49 of the 110 councilor seats in the City Assembly, and the SPS-JS won five. The list "Serbia against violence" 43, while the NADA Coalition won seven. Branimir Nestorović's "We - Voice from the People" list has six councilors.
In order to have a majority, SNS and SPS lack two votes.
Right after the election Nestorović said that some candidates for councilors have already received offers to move to "other councilor groups". These were allegedly "six-figure offers, not in dinars, and some positions."
"If someone sells out, I think he's an idiot, because our movement will grow," said Nestorovic.
Jerković was the subject of speculation that he is in secret negotiations with SNS.
Portal Nova announced that the president of the temporary authority in Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, spoke with two councilors from the "We - Voice of the People" list and agreed on cooperation, but that, according to them, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, rejected Šapić's decision.
According to this portal, one of those councilors is Aleksandar Jerković, the holder of the list in the Belgrade elections.
"Until the election results are final, until everything is definitive, I told everyone that I will not make statements. I think anything else would be frivolous. If it is not a problem for you when the appeals and all the deadlines have passed, then I will be very happy to respond, to visit, whatever it takes is not a problem", said Jerković at the time.
According to nova.rs information, the second councilor who allegedly "reached out" to Šapić was Slobodan Đurašinović, but he denied even receiving an invitation from SNS.
Unclear position
In his statement, Aleksandar Jerković was not precise about whether "We - the voice of the people" should form a majority with SNS and SPS. If it happens that they agree, there will still be one councilor missing to form a majority.
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