Serbia's parliament set to vote on no-confidence motion
The session on confidence in Djuro Macut's government has entered a third day. Ana Brnabic says the vote will be held on Wednesday, even if the sitting runs to 11 pm.
- The extraordinary session on confidence in Djuro Macut's government has reached a third day, resuming at 10 am.
- Ana Brnabic says the vote will be held on Wednesday, even if the sitting runs to 11 pm.
- The motion was filed in February by 62 opposition MPs, while the session itself was requested by 109 MPs from the governing list.
- Day three covered the General Staff affair, school violence in Mrcajevci, Branimir Nestorovic's salary and press freedom.
Serbia’s National Assembly went into a third day of its extraordinary session on the motion of no confidence in the government on Wednesday, July 29. MPs were due back in the chamber at 10 am, and Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic has said they will settle the motion the same day.
She made the announcement on Pink television on Tuesday evening, saying the sitting would not be adjourned again and that the vote would be held on Wednesday even if the chamber had to sit until 11 pm.
“Tomorrow the vote will happen, one way or another.”
In the same appearance she called it the hardest session she has presided over, harder than the ones where smoke bombs and pepper spray were let off inside the chamber.
We covered the first and second days of the debate, and the chronology runs back further than this week. The no-confidence motion was filed in February by 62 opposition MPs from three groups: the People’s Movement of Serbia - New Face of Serbia, the Party of Freedom and Justice, and Serbia Centre. Brnabic eventually scheduled the session at the request of 109 MPs from the list of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the governing majority rather than the movers. Miroslav Aleksic spent four hours making the opposition’s case on day one; on day two the sitting broke off at 6 pm with a promise to resume at 10 am.
What did day three cover?
The debate moved well past the General Staff affair that the movers had put at the centre of their case. MPs raised school violence in Mrcajevci, the salary drawn by MP Branimir Nestorovic, and the state of the media. Aleksic, who leads the People’s Movement of Serbia, argued that the government is breaching the public’s right to information.
“The Constitution guarantees the right of every citizen of Serbia to be informed in a timely and truthful manner.”
SNS parliamentary group leader Milenko Jovanov answered that the opposition was recycling old material: “You are reading stale speeches, the Belgrade Pharmacy problem has been solved.” For the governing side the third day was a chance to turn a debate about confidence into a debate about delivery, while the opposition used live coverage to repeat charges that rarely get this much airtime.
The tone in the chamber
Finance Minister Sinisa Mali called Aleksic a liar, a pickpocket and a bum from the rostrum. Prime Minister Djuro Macut responded to that language directly.
“Addressing someone personally by name reflects a certain level of bad manners.”
He also told MPs that he works from 6.15 am until midnight and has led the government for 15 months. The chamber’s line-up shifted during the sitting itself, with Green-Left Front MP Andjela Ruvidic replacing Jelena Jerinic mid-session.
If parliament carries the motion, or if the prime minister resigns on his own, a 30-day clock starts for putting together a new government. If none is formed in that window, parliament is dissolved and elections follow. No majority capable of bringing down this government exists in the current convocation, so the arithmetic of the vote is known before it is held. What is still open is when the session closes, because only then does the countdown to an election cycle begin.
