Mi Snaga Naroda: Cabinet Met on Day of Mladic Funeral
The Mi Snaga Naroda movement says Serbia's government scheduled its session on dissolving parliament for the same day Ratko Mladic was buried, and wants his name mentioned there.
A statement from Mi Snaga Naroda, a parliamentary group in the National Assembly, reached the Srpske Novine newsroom on Monday, September 7, at 1:55 p.m. In it, the movement challenges the Serbian government’s decision to hold an extraordinary session on dissolving parliament on the very day Ratko Mladic was buried at Topcider Cemetery.
That same day, September 7 at 3:30 p.m., Serbia’s government held an extraordinary session at which it adopted a reasoned proposal to dissolve the National Assembly and forwarded it to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Ahead of the session, Prime Minister Djuro Macut said elections are proof of the strength of a democratic Serbia, and proposed that the government ask the president to dissolve parliament and call elections for national deputies.
It was precisely that sequence, a session called right after the funeral, that drew a sharp response from Mi Snaga Naroda:
“If it is true that the session will be held right after the funeral, then that is yet another proof of a political culture in which, for the state authorities, there is apparently no moment that cannot be used for political gain.”
Ratko Mladic was buried at Topcider Cemetery on September 7. Serbian Patriarch Porfirije led the funeral service, and officials from both Serbia and Republika Srpska attended the farewell, as our paper reported that same day.
What the movement wants from the government
In its statement, the movement asks that General Ratko Mladic’s name be mentioned at the government session:
“At Mi Snaga Naroda we expect that at that government session the name of General Ratko Mladic will at least be mentioned, and that tribute will be paid to a man who was part of the history of Serbia and Republika Srpska for decades. If there is no time for that, yet there is time for dissolving parliament and preparing elections, then the message from those in power to the citizens is entirely clear: political interest matters more than respect for the dead.”
The movement’s message is that, in its view, political interest should not outweigh respect for the deceased.
The statement also adds that, based on the information available to the movement at the time of writing, the country’s top state officials attended neither the commemoration nor the funeral, and it raises the question of why Mladic, as it claims, was not given a military send-off. Several media reports from the September 7 funeral, however, say otherwise, describing an honor guard and a three-volley salute as part of the farewell, with assessments that the general was buried with the highest military and state honors.
“We are not asking the authorities to share everyone’s political views. We are asking for a minimum of state dignity,” the Mi Snaga Naroda statement says.
Serbia’s government, to which the statement was addressed through public criticism, had not responded to the movement’s claims by the time this article was published.
Second time in three days the movement points a finger at the government
This is not the first time this week that Mi Snaga Naroda, led by Branimir Nestorovic, has pointed a finger at the authorities’ handling of Ratko Mladic’s funeral. Our paper reported on September 6 that the movement claimed the authorities had skipped a commemoration held in the general’s honor, a day before the funeral itself. The latest statement continues that same line of criticism, this time aimed at the timing of the session at which the procedure to dissolve parliament was launched.
What happens in the next 72 hours?
Under the Constitution, Serbia’s president has 72 hours from receiving the government’s reasoned proposal to decide whether to dissolve the National Assembly and call snap parliamentary elections, or to reject the proposal. If the decree dissolving parliament is signed, no fewer than 45 and no more than 60 days may pass between the day elections are called and the day of the vote.
Over the previous weekend, Vucic said elections could be called on September 9 or 10, which would make a final voting date known in the coming days. Our paper also reported on September 7 that the Serbian Progressive Party’s Main Board, at a session held in Nis on Saturday, September 5, decided that Vucic would head the party’s election list.
Whether the president will use the full time allowed or decide sooner, and whether the government will formally mention Ratko Mladic’s name as Mi Snaga Naroda is demanding, will become clear in the coming days.
