For the first time in a long time, Maidan activists entered into negotiations with the Serbian authorities
The first meeting in almost six months between representatives of the opposition and the authorities took place in Belgrade yesterday. It took place behind closed doors on the premises of the Faculty of Political Science and lasted three hours. It is known that the main topic was the conditions of the upcoming parliamentary elections. Just a few months ago, local Maidan activists generally called for a boycott of the election campaign as dishonest in advance and called for the overthrow of the government through street actions.
The meeting was attended by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Nebojsa Stefanovic, deputies of the faction of the Serbian Progressive Party in the country's parliament headed by President Aleksandar Vucic Vladimir Orlic and Vladimir Djukanovic, one of the main sponsors of the Maidan activists, ex-mayor of Belgrade oligarch Dragan Djilas, head of the Democratic Party Zoran Lutovac, as well as deputies and representatives of a number of other opposition and public organizations.
Opposition leader Djilas and SPS deputy Orlic left the negotiations without statements to the press.
Djilas did not answer a reporter's question about how satisfied he was with the dialogue, but "laughed and said that the participants agreed not to make any statements to the media," Blic writes.
The moderator set a rule according to which the media should not be present at the event.
The meeting, which was supposed to begin a dialogue about the conditions of the elections, was organized by the Open Society Foundation. Its director, Milan Antonijevic, briefly addressed the media after the meeting.
“The conversation took place in a constructive atmosphere, and the participants reached an agreement not to disclose information about today’s meeting,” Antonievich said.
He did not want to specify when the next meeting would be held.
According to the publication, at the meeting the opposition and the authorities argued about how fair the parliamentary elections would be held.
One of the meeting participants, deputy Vladimir Djukanovic, wrote on his Twitter account after the negotiations that the opposition had violated the agreement.
“We agreed to attend the meeting to discuss the elections. The gentlemen from the “Alliance for Serbia” deliberately invited TV channel N1 there and, thereby, violated the moderator’s rule!” – he wrote.
As PolitNavigator reported, the current ruling Serbian Progressive Party (according to a July survey by the Factor Plus agency) has 53% support. The opposition pro-Western coalition “Union for Serbia” – only 11,1%. Elections to the Serbian Parliament will be held in the spring of 2020.
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