The authorities are deliberately prolonging the duration of the session Assembly of Serbia about rebalancing the budget, hoping in vain that, if she does it long enough, an extraordinary session on lithium will not be held, but also expecting the return of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, from New York, because they do not know how they would behave at that session without his orders, they say for "Vreme" MPs opposition.
MP Marinika Tepić, responding to the government's accusations that the opposition is deliberately delaying the budget rebalancing session with a large number of amendments, reminds that such sessions, as well as sessions on the budget and the election of the Government, have always had many amendments because these are the most important sessions in all parliaments in the world.
"Now the authorities have an awful lot of 146 submitted amendments, and there were more than a thousand amendments at the budget sessions. In 2019 alone, the government submitted hundreds of amendments to its own budget rebalancing proposal, just to prevent the opposition from speaking. This session is one of those with the smallest number of amendments," says Tepic.
She points out that the President of the Assembly, Ana Brnabić, previously, on Thursday morning, before the Assembly session resumed, accused the opposition on Happy television of deliberately delaying the budget rebalancing session with a large number of amendments so that the extraordinary sessions on lithium and Kosovo would not come next. which the opposition itself sought.
On that occasion, Brnabić said that the session of the Assembly, by law, enters the regular session from October 1, so the opposition is "delaying the rebalancing of the budget" with a large number of amendments, with the assessment that the Assembly "who knows if it will be able to" hold sessions on lithium and Kosovo.
Tepić says that Brnabić came to the Assembly after that visit and tried to convince the opposition with other members of the ruling coalition to give up the amendment, so that there would allegedly be time for extraordinary sessions on lithium and Kosovo.
"They see our amendments to the budget rebalancing, it is in the electronic system of the parliament, they know what we are going to say, and they don't like it at all." They tried to talk us out of the amendment, because we are supposedly shortening the time for the session on lithium, which is a complete lie. Ana Brnabić has no idea about procedures, she does not differentiate between a session and a convocation of the Assembly. "She wants to interrupt the session on lithium on Tuesday (October 1), which should realistically start on Monday (September 30), which is impossible," says Tepic.
Tepić: There is no way to prevent the session on lithium
She reminds that even the previous president of the Assembly, Vladimir Orlić, at the request of a third of the deputies, scheduled a session in the regular session of the Assembly after the mass murders in May 2023.
"Brnabić can also schedule a session on lithium on October 1, in the regular session of the Assembly." There is no way to prevent the session on lithium," says Tepić.
She says that this could not be seen in the broadcast of the Assembly, but that Brnabić, faced with the opposition's argument that Orlić scheduled the session at the request of a third of the deputies, asked the Secretary General of the Assembly Srđan Smiljanić if these statements were correct.
"She asked him if that was true, he told her that it was and began to explain to her, to which Brnabić, colloquially speaking, snapped out of it." They obviously have misunderstandings within their caucus, they have ignorance, muscle measuring who is in charge, and they have jumped into their own throats. This is an attempt to escape from the amendment debate on the budget and an attempt to escape from scheduling the session on lithium, which must be. There's no way it won't be," says Tepić.
Pajić: The government is trying to prolong the budget rebalancing session
Deputy Vladimir Pajić says that the impression is that the government is trying to prolong the budget rebalancing session, all the while blaming the opposition for doing it, and that it is "madly" spending time on things that are not on the agenda.
"It seems to me that the idea is to extend the session until the president returns from abroad, or to extend this session to next week, in order to make it impossible to discuss lithium in the extraordinary session," says Pajić.
He pointed out that he hopes that Brnabić will respect the will of the citizens to hold a session on lithium.
"It is necessary to devote the entire session to the topic of lithium because it is not easy, it concerns a large number of citizens, but also major political and strategic decisions." The only place to talk about it is the parliament. "It is certain that the representatives of the ruling parties are waiting for the president to return, so that they have a direct command on how to behave at that session," concludes Pajić.
