Political analyst Djordje Vukadinovic said that the first two days of the Serbian Parliament constitutive session were marked by a historic speech delivered by opposition politician Vladeta Jankovic, the oldest MP presiding over the session until a speaker is elected.
Professor Jankovic’s speech shocked the ruling MPs and it will be remembered as a bright spot in the recent history of renewed Serbian parliamentarism, said Vukadinovic, adding that Jankovic obviously “destabilized” the MPs of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and shook them out of the rut they were in for the past few years.
Vukadinovic said that the constitutive session of the Parliament attracted much attention because, following years of a one-party parliament, the people now have a chance to also see and hear opposition politicians.
Starting his speech, which caused controversy in the public and conflicting reactions, Jankovic said that, as chairman, he will allow himself the freedom to express his position in the honor of the parliament and parliamentarism and stressed the importance of elections whose results define the parliament make-up.
Jankovic said that his address should not be understood as an expression of his personal bias, but that it is based on his long life and political experience.
In any country without equal and fair elections for ten years the legitimacy of every legislative body elected in that period would have to be thrown into question, as well as that of all its decisions and institutions, said Jankovic.
Any country in which this happened would end up, like we have, in such a form of one-party system in which one political party with an undisputed leader consciously and deliberately keeps a large part of society in ignorance and denies it basic freedoms and rights, said Jankovic.
He explained that he was not talking about democracy, but about the truth, freedom, honesty, and, above all, about justice and about something that obliges everyone, and that is human dignity.
“Let us not forget, respected members of the parliament, and this is more important than anything I wish to say to you on this occasion, that we will justify the trust placed in us only if the heart of our country truly beats here, under the parliament dome, and not on the other side of the park,” Jankovic said, alluding to the Office of the Serbian President.
When the legislative branch, that is, the Parliament, is not properly constituted, the other two branches of power must also be dismissed – the executive branch that does not act in line with the will of the people expressed through its representatives but on the leader’s orders, and especially the judicial branch, whose bias and passivity lead to a situation in which every citizen is unprotected and helpless, Janovic said.
“I will finish with a simple message: Serbia deprived of fair elections cannot be a happy and respected country. There will not and cannot be fair elections as long as every citizen of Serbia, even the most remote, cannot see what the government says and does, but also what those who are not in power have to say about it, in the RTS (Serbian state television) news broadcast. There are no fair elections and there cannot be as long as there is bribery, pressure, and violence. As long as the national media space is not made available to everyone, as long as the election commissions are waiting for the ruling politicians to decide for them, as long as the will and whim of one man are above the Constitution, and especially as long as the courts tacitly approve of all this,“ Jankovic said.
