Ivanjica: 14 Councillors Seek Removal of Municipal Leaders
According to Beta, a session on removing Aleksandar Mitrovic (SNS) and Dragovan Milinkovic (SPS) is set for November 13, while Ivanjicki Radio says the date is unconfirmed.
Fourteen opposition councillors have signed a request to remove the municipal leadership in Ivanjica, the Beta news agency reported on Saturday, November 7, and the report was carried by Danas and N1. The signatories make up a third of the Ivanjica Municipal Assembly, and according to Beta the request would be debated at a session scheduled for Friday, November 13.
Who is on the removal list in Ivanjica?
The request seeks the removal of municipality president Aleksandar Mitrovic of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), his deputy Vladimir Bojanovic, and Assembly speaker Dragovan Milinkovic of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). Two members of the Municipal Council, Dana Anicic and Milovan Milovic, who come from the coalition around the SNS, are also named.
The request therefore targets both sides of the ruling majority: the posts held by the Progressives and the speaker’s seat held by a Socialist.
What do the councillors who want the removal say?
Ivan Jovicevic, a councillor from New Face of Serbia, told Beta that after the parliamentary election results the “question of the local government’s political legitimacy has become unavoidable.” He added:
“The citizens have sent a message, and now it is up to those in power to show whether they are ready to take responsibility.”
Mile Sekulic, a councillor from the People’s Movement of Serbia, said it was “particularly telling” that the SPS, the party of Assembly speaker Milinkovic, won about 300 votes in Ivanjica in the parliamentary election, or 1.79 percent. Sekulic supplied that figure, and we have not checked it against data from the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK). He told Beta:
“Such a result does not give anyone the political legitimacy to run the Ivanjica Municipal Assembly in the name of the citizens.”
Has the session actually been scheduled?
The sources disagree. Beta, as cited by Danas and N1, says the session is set for November 13. Ivanjicki Radio reports that for now there is no confirmed information about the date, or about whether an agreement on scheduling has been reached. That outlet also says the opposition councillors asked to meet Mitrovic and Milinkovic, and the topic was precisely the scheduling of a session on the removal proposals submitted earlier.
What happened on October 9?
A session with the same proposal had already been scheduled for October 9, before the parliamentary election, but it was not held because the ruling-majority councillors did not show up. Neither Danas nor N1 says whether an agreement has been reached on majority councillors attending the November session.
In the reports we read, there is no response from Mitrovic, Milinkovic, the SNS or the SPS to the removal request. An opposition request is only a request, and its fate is decided by the Municipal Assembly.
