Nestorovic Movement MPs: Leader Unreachable for Seven Days
MPs from the We, the Power of the People movement rejected a coalition with Vulin's Socialist Movement in parliament, said Nestorovic has not answered since last Tuesday and blamed Vucic and the BIA.
Presidency members of the We, the Power of the People (Mi snaga naroda) movement told a press conference in the National Assembly on Monday, September 14, that they reject any coalition with Aleksandar Vulin’s Socialist Movement and that the movement’s president, Branimir Nestorovic, has not answered them since last Tuesday. The movement sent a report on the conference to Srpske Novine the same day, from the official address of its parliamentary group. The conference was also covered by the Beta news agency and the Insajder portal.
According to the movement’s report, five Presidency members set out their position, while Branko Lukic and Ana Ivanovic also attended. Insajder reports eight Presidency members.
Antonijevic: the decision was taken by majority vote
MP Borislav Antonijevic said no one in the movement can reach Nestorovic. “He has not been answering us for seven days,” Antonijevic said, dating it to last Tuesday’s Presidency meeting, “when we decided by majority vote that we would not enter a coalition with the Socialist Movement and Aleksandar Vulin.”
That meeting, he said, followed one in July at which a proposal from Nestorovic himself, not to enter such a coalition, was adopted unanimously. According to the report, Antonijevic also said a coalition is out of the question because of the agreements and scandals the Socialist Movement has been part of, and that the issue will be raised at the party assembly scheduled for the evening.
Ilic: Vucic and the BIA are behind it
MP Slobodan Ilic said no one knows where Nestorovic is, and blamed the Serbian president and the Security Information Agency for the whole dispute:
“What I can tell you without any doubt is that behind this entire operation, the attempt to impose Vulin in a coalition with us and around the disappearance of Branimir Nestorovic, stand Aleksandar Vucic personally and state security, that is, the BIA. All of us have been under tremendous pressure from the BIA in recent days, under operational surveillance, under threats, offered various deals, which we will never accept at any price.”
The Beta agency quotes the same statement with the words “the past five days” and “under monitoring”, which do not appear in the movement’s report.
Ilic described the movement as a party opposed to Aleksandar Vucic’s government and said “we will never, at any price, enter government with him. Nor with his satellites and followers.” He called Vulin “an accomplice in all the treasonous decisions concerning Kosovo and Metohija and all Serbian national interests, and there are no negotiations with him on any coalition.” He also promised that, if he ever has a say, he will seek the complete dissolution of the BIA and the creation of a new Serbian state security service.
Zivanovic: a coup will be attempted at the assembly
Marko Zivanovic, a deputy member of the Republic Electoral Commission from the movement’s ranks, said that according to information the movement has, “there will be an attempted coup” at this evening’s extraordinary party assembly. “There is no better legal term,” he said.
Zivanovic said he wrote the party statute together with Branko Lukic, and explained why, in his reading, the assembly has no right to decide on coalitions or on the Presidency:
“Our statute is highly centralized to prevent outside influence on the party’s work, on decisions about coalitions and on the work of the Presidency itself, including its replacement. That is decided exclusively by the movement’s Presidency. The assembly does not have those powers.”
He added that he was saying this to warn in advance of possible attempts to expel some party members at the assembly.
Ristic: why Nestorovic agreed remains a mystery
Professor Ratko Ristic, a Belgrade city councillor and Presidency member, said part of the membership is alarmed by the reports of a coalition:
“Those people have said that under no circumstances will they remain party members if that happens. The proposed coalition with the SM amounts to tearing down the basic programme principles of our party.”
Ristic said the movement has nothing personal against Vulin, but that Vulin supported the signing and implementation of the Brussels and Ohrid agreements. “That is why it remains a great mystery why Prof. Nestorovic agreed to a coalition with the Socialist Movement,” Ristic said. He told members that if the party is unlawfully taken over and enters a coalition with the Socialist Movement, they should not support it or vote for it in the elections.
What is scheduled for 6 p.m.?
On September 12, Nestorovic, as party president, called an extraordinary assembly of the movement for Monday, September 14 at 6 p.m., at party headquarters. The notice published on the movement’s website cites the snap parliamentary elections as the reason, with the current political situation and the movement’s participation in the elections on the agenda.
The same day, Branko Lukic said in a letter to members, published by Pravda, that the Presidency had earlier decided unanimously, on the president’s proposal, not to enter a coalition with the Socialist Movement.
On August 1, asked whether he was negotiating with the Socialist Movement, Nestorovic replied: “Of course not.” Vladimir Gajic, president of the People’s Party, with which the movement agreed an electoral coalition in September, said on September 13 that the coalition agreement would be certified early this week. Snap parliamentary elections are on October 25, and lists must be submitted by October 4.
Branimir Nestorovic, Aleksandar Vulin, the Socialist Movement and the BIA had not publicly responded to the claims made at the conference by the time this article was published.
