President of the Serbian Parliament Ana Brnabić and her party colleague Milenko Jovanov, head of the parliamentary group Serbian Progressive Party in the National Assembly, on Wednesday, January 15, they will hand in the signatures with which the members of the ruling majority request that a referendum be called on the confidence or removal of the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, reported by regime media.
For this purpose, Brnabić and Jovanov will submit 100 initial signatures of SNS deputies, after which a press conference will be held.
Previously, according to the tried-and-tested recipe, Vučić in a video message called on opposition MPs to submit signatures for holding an advisory referendum on his removal.
He referred ironically to the results of research by the non-governmental organization CRTA.
Referendum for deception
"The objective and impartial CRTA informed the public that the vast majority of citizens are in favor of my removal." There is no more credible source, neither for the international community, nor for political parties in Serbia, than that non-governmental organization. I fought for the people and the people are my strength. If these statements by CRTE are true, it is impossible for me to remain in the position of the president of Serbia, and therefore, it is necessary for the opposition parties to submit only 67 signatures, and they have over 80, in order to hold an advisory referendum on the president of Serbia," Vučić announced on Instagram. account the future of Serbia.
There is no referendum on the dismissal of the president
Such synchronized action of the regime's wings and subservient media has been seen many times so far, but it is not in accordance with the law.
"There is no referendum on the dismissal of the president." In the past year, I think we have received such statements from SNS four times, first that there will be a referendum on lithium, and since the canopy fell, it is a referendum on Vučić. None of them is even competent to propose such things," Jelena Jerinić, a professor at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade and a People's Deputy of the Green-Left Front, told "Vreme".
She doesn't know what the proposal of those 100 deputies looks like and said that "they can submit whatever they want", but that she cannot comment on "such rather crazy ideas".
"It seems that SNS wants to conduct a public opinion survey for itself at the expense of the state." Those ideas are so frivolous from the point of view of the Constitution and the law that we cannot look for some meaning," said Jerinić.
The Assembly and the Constitutional Court are wondering, not the citizens
She pointed out that the Constitution defines the procedure for dismissing the president.
"That procedure starts in the National Assembly." The Constitutional Court should take part in the dismissal, which should say whether the president has violated the Constitution, and at the end the people's deputies declare about it. There is no referendum here. Calling a referendum to see who has support is a survey of public opinion, it is not a legal category, it is simply not even a referendum," said Jerinić.
She reminded that there is a Law on Referendum and People's Initiative, but that it does not provide for a referendum on the dismissal of the president either.
"If we look at the regulations, there is a vote of no confidence in the Government, but the opposition MPs submitted that request, so Brnabić did not put it on the agenda. As for trust and distrust of the president, it is not foreseen that citizens will declare themselves on this in a referendum," concludes Jerinić.
