Aleksandar Šapić will continue to be the mayor of Belgrade, because only 110 out of 45 councilors voted at the extraordinary session of the City Assembly that ended late in the evening on Tuesday, of which 44 were "for" and one against Šapić's dismissal.
"The councilors of the ruling majority did not even start voting, so it was immediately clear what the result would be," Democratic Party councilor Milan Aleksić told the "Vremena" portal.
Actually, says Aleksić, "until the very beginning, it was not even known whether the session would be held or not, whether we would have a quorum. And, the fact that it was decided that the councilors of the majority attend the session, tells what they were told".
Aleksandar Šapić did not attend the session, which, according to Aleksić, "has never happened so far". At the same time, before the session, Šapić scheduled a press conference for Wednesday and announced that he will talk about everything that was achieved during his mandate in Belgrade.
"Obviously, it was agreed that councilors would attend the meeting and not vote, so he knew that he would not be replaced, but I guess he was still not comfortable that he was told for several hours what he did not do well," says Milan Aleksić.
According to the Rules of Procedure of the City Assembly, it will not be possible to put Šapić's dismissal on the agenda for the next six months. "Unless he himself decides to go," says Aleksic.
Today, councilors from the opposition parties, apart from Šapić, also spoke about other important city topics: pollution, housing prices, reducing the price of heating for the period when it was not available due to the postponement of the heating season.
"There were very constructive proposals and solutions that would certainly improve living conditions in the city, but everything was rejected only because they were proposed by the opposition." And that is a great pity," says Aleksić, noting that it has been like this since the beginning of this convocation of the City Assembly, and that "this way of working is long-lasting and seems pointless," but that "change is still possible."
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
