2020-09-22

Dialogue in the Center: We Are Expected to Be More Active

The outcome of the recently held local elections, were such that due to boycott, the opposition was left without a spot in the local assemblies. How will the new urban and municipal assemblies represent the citizenry, their various needs and priorities? Representatives of the ruling majority claim that new mayors were elected in over 50 cities and municipalities, however, all of them are representatives of the same party. Will this change the way these cities and municipalities are managed? Will councilors, some of whom had already served in parties, and elected from citizens’ group lists, be able to impact local policy or in the very least, control local executive government? How do cities and municipalities implement harmonization with European standards today and will the lack of political pluralism within local self-government delay this process? What are the mechanisms employed by non-parliamentary parties that have until now traditionally participated in the work of institutions at the local level?

The cultivation of public dialogue principals, as a means of resolving the issues of a democratic society, are the reasons why the Center for Democracy Foundation organized a debate on 22 September 2020 on the subject ‘Political Pluralism in Cities and Municipalities After the Elections’.

Participating in the talks were: Nebojša Zelenović (Together for Serbia), Aleksandra Jerkov (Democratic Party), Dobrica Veselinović (Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own), Predrag Voštinić (Local Front), Pavle Grbović (Movement of Free Citizens), Konstantin Samofalov (Social Democratic Party) and Nataša Vučković before the Center for Democracy Foundation. Joining the discussion were also: Tamara Tripić, Balša Božović, Goran Ćirić and Vesna Marjanović (Democratic Party), Aris Movsesijan (New Party), opposition councilors from Niš (Miodrag Stanković, Dragoslav Ćirić) and others. The debate’s moderator was journalist Antonela Riha.

We are in the process of realising the Connecting the Dots project with the financial support of the Balkan Trust for Democracy of the German Marshal Fund of the U.S. – BTD and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Belgrade.

On behalf of the organizer, Nataša Vučković welcomed those participating in person as well as those who actively followed the debate via Zoom or streaming live via social media.

She emphasized that the results of the local elections were overshadowed by parliamentary, national elections, but that the needs of the citizens, are most directly evident within the local communities. When we see that the level of democracy has deteriorated and that representation of the citizenry in local assemblies has declined significantly, the question arises as to how the interests of the population will be represented and defended. The structure of urban and municipal assemblies indicates a significant number of the public have no representation. How will this impact their lives? What will happen to those parties without representation? What tactics will be applied in the next elections? Furthermore, the question arises as to how citizens’ movements will be organized as they, along with the civil sector, carry a great impetus in terms of activating the local citizenry. And finally, will parties that were able to participate in the elections as a result of their institutional positioning gain power? An important issue is the fact that within those parties which boycotted the elections, there were many who were ‘disobedient’, and despite the dictates of the party, still participated in the elections as groups of citizens and in many places were able to enter local parliament. Now the question is this: how will they act? Will they now be a means of support?

She reminded the participants that the president of the Republic made a statement saying there was a change of mayor in 55 cities and municipalities, and although the Serbian Progressive Party was in charge in these cities and municipalities in the past, can we expect different politics and ways of doing things? What will happen in terms of the fight against corruption? Will there be a reduction of unlimited party-related employment? Will the quality of administration improve? Also, we should bear in mind the criticisms we received from the European Commission stating that public administration is in a particularly deficient state and the quality of resources needed to implement reform is extremely poor.

“People’s lives are governed by the everyday events that happen in their cities and if parties and local movements fail to raise the level of civic activism and interest, I’m afraid there will be further apathy which will make it much harder to activate citizens," she said. The boycott further provoked the apathy of the population and the negative image of politics. Civil societies and political parties will have to launch a new avalanche of campaigns that will raise expectations, hopes, and offer new programs.

At any rate, the worst we can do now is to wash our hands of it all and to say it’s a ‘lost cause’. Increased activism is what is expected of us.

It’s true that a high level of polarization is present in our society, but these are poles comprised of unequal parts. This suits the ruling party better. We have to come up with a new tactic that will increase our segment and strengthen the level of organization needed to participate in elections.

Nebojša Zelenović shared current events taking place in the town of Šabac, where elections are still on and where it was just announced that they will be repeated at 5 more polling stations, i.e. for 6,000 voters. In the first round, we, together with our partners, won 881 votes less than the SNS with their partners. We documented everything that happened at the time and filed criminal charges against 55 people who put pressure on voters, offered or took monetary bribes. The City Electoral Commission (GIK) rendered the decision to repeat the elections at all 100 polling stations but the Administrative Court decided differently. Nevertheless, we won more seats than in the first round. Then the third round was before us. Two conditions were key – the media and the City Electoral Commission, which serves to protect the electoral will of the citizens. We filed new criminal charges against the holders of the Serbian Progressive Party list for stealing the electoral will of the citizenry.

We are expecting repeat elections to be held very soon, we have the public’s attention and focus, but on the other hand, there are more and more criminals and money being used to prevent the electoral will of the people. How is this possible and why are we participating? We are doing our best to defend ourselves because this is what the people of Šabac expect from us, i.e. that we protect both their electoral will and all the quality work that has been done so far. However, we cannot be the police nor can we be prosecutors. No one has lifted a finger since we filed the first criminal charges. But we will not give up. We are fighting for our lives here against organized crime and the mafia. The Serbian Progressive Party does not hold the majority without the mafia, and this is what we are facing here.

The elementary question is this: can we agree to oppose this destruction of society and the state, which, for me, is the ultimate goal. If you have policies, quality and hard-working people who are doing good work, no matter what the obstacles are you will bear fruit.

Aleksandra Jerkov believes that the core of the issue is the fact that local elections are always overshadowed by state elections. It is bad form to have all elections held on the same day, even when the conditions needed to do so are lacking. This has led to bad feelings among the population, where the people fail to understand the importance of local elections and what their purpose is, what they are voting for and what local self-government is supposed to do. The people need to understand that they should be voting for someone who will be representing them or who will be in charge of their municipality, someone who will work for them and in their interests, and not for some party leader from Belgrade.

It is my strong belief that we will never be able to fight a ‘monster’ the likes of the Serbian Progressive Party without a party that has a well-organized infrastructure. Now, with the boycott of the elections, we no longer have our own councilors who will act as counterparties to the Municipal Council Chairperson and their government. By deciding to boycott, we took away the people’s right to control the local government and the rights of our people to build an organization that will, in future, be strong enough to oppose the government. With this decision, we have sacrificed the opportunity to build better tomorrows for the local population. The dangerous strategy which lead to the boycott of the local elections should not be reason now for us to ask ourselves what will happen to the opposition, but rather, what will be of the people and their interests within the local communities? What we require is a broad coalition of parties and initiatives that will bring everyone together. The work being done by organizations such as Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own and Local Front is of extreme importance and we need more of these kinds of initiatives.

Dobrica Veselinović believes that for some time now, we have been living in a morally bankrupt society which is the cause of everything we are discussing here – corruption and a limited number of people involved in the decision-making process. The crisis must be overcome as this is how we will resolve all of these issues. Where do politics begin and where do they disappear? Can we, and how do we fight social inequality? How do we respond to climate change in our cities and surroundings – these are the types of questions that go beyond party divisions in society. We are interested in local issues as these are the problems we can influence and where change is visible. Schools and clean air are topics that go beyond party divisions in society. In a moral crisis, I do not believe that one should vote for a party just because of the size of its infrastructure.

To me, it doesn’t matter when things are dealt with during, before or after elections. We deal with local, everyday issues and when you are constantly working on these, you can see the impact it has on the lives of the people. I think this is key, we have to get back to fixing what we can in our immediate environment and it’s this type of attitude that brings people together.

Hence, the cause of the issue is the moral crisis and this is what we need to fix.

Predrag Voštinić emphasized that in an exceptionally centralized system of state governance, local municipal assemblies do not have the significance we attach to them. A local assembly serves, for the most part, as an implementer or decisions rendered in Belgrade, in one of the party’s premises. During our mandate in Kraljevo, we were a type of democratic ‘window dressing’ basically serving as a façade of a healthy debate. Our proposals were never given airtime at local assemblies. The wretched cowardice of obedient local authorities takes away any idea of the possibility of democratic action at the local level.

One important think we lost with the boycott was the attention of local media, as coverage of the assembly was obligatory, which is a huge loss, the rest remains the same. I agree that we are all participants in a moral crisis.

Konstantin Samofalov shared his experience as a counselor in the Municipal Assembly of Vračar. We launched a very complex campaign, the main challenge being to raise the awareness of the citizens of the fact that some sort of opposition list does indeed exist on the ballot. You have to take care of your own interests at the local level. The City of Belgrade takes 20% of the Vračar Municipality’s budget, the people’s money, overnight, in a completely non-transparent manner, and will take another 10% of the budget. If you don’t have your own representatives in the local assembly, then you have no way of knowing what’s going on. We are here to shine a light on all of this for the people. Abnormal cases of corruption and nepotism fly ‘under the radar’ if you have no one in the opposition in the local assembly. The Belgrade municipalities have been stripped of all key authority. There aren’t enough of us to win at this time, but at least in those places where we have representation, we can put pressure on the government. We cannot miss the Belgrade elections, and we must overcome our differences, without attacking one another. I am convinced that we can win these elections.

Pavle Grbović admitted that we did quite badly in the elections, we have councilors here and there, but no real power. Now we’re entering a political ‘buffer zone’, the elections are over and we’re getting closer to the second phase, the 2022 elections. We are currently a pre-political society, thanks to the total destruction of political life, the total obliteration of political parties, the complete poisoning of public discourse, which is all forcing people out of politics. I don’t remember a time when it was more shameful to be involved in politics than it is today, yet there has never been a greater need for people to be involved in politics than there is today.

On the current political scene we have local organizations and movements that do not have the ambition to deal with issues at the state level, and we have new parties and movements, mostly derivatives of the Democratic Party and now, within the context of the elections, it seems to me that in some way we have refused to ‘get educated’.

Dragoslav Ćirković, who won a seat in the Municipal Assembly in Niš, believes that we do not need a new list, but rather people with fresh ideas. Serbia has no chance without a system of values, which has been destroyed. In Niš, there are only 4 opposition councilors. If we were better organized, we would have much better results. 20% of the votes were scattered in Niš, 16 lists came out, and only 4 councilors were elected. Miodrag Stanković, who is also a councilor in Niš is of the same opinion, who believes that we missed out on a huge opportunity to organize ourselves, as Niš would also be a free city, just like Šabac. Someone from Belgrade cannot know what Niš needs and for this reason, the people of Niš are at a disadvantage.

Balša Božović said that today, in the given situation, a strategy comprised of small victories is very important to the opposition when the Serbian Progressive Party has absolute power and imposes the impression that they have more and more of the votes, which makes people who want to see change happen overnight, apathetic. But in reality, the absolute numbers indicate that his numbers are in fact, declining.

Goran Ćirić reminded us of the opposition’s experience during Slobodan Milošević’s time in the ‘90s. In his opinion, people today have lost their self-confidence as they do not have the space in which to act. The experience of fighting in the ‘96/’97 elections and the opposition’s victory in the local elections then, raised a wave of resistance after the fact. I think that without this momentum, the historical win in 2000 would never have happened. Today there is no such wave of which to speak.

Vesna Marjanović said that the difference between the ‘90s and today is that the democratic crisis is now global, even in countries with long-standing democratic traditions, and therefore, it was impossible for it to bypass Serbia. It is evident that people the world over no longer believe in democratic institutions and their ability to represent their constituents. This includes political parties which are also part of the democratic order and democratic pluralism. Nonetheless, we have no other system other than the one built after World War II, and our struggle, according to her, cannot happen without it. Even those organizations that don’t see themselves as political parties, if they participate in political activities, boycott or go to the polls, they are political organizations. And finally, she pointed out that the experiences of the Democratic Party, which were founded on serious organization through the many decades it spent battling a regime that was also explicitly criminal, speaks to the fact that political organization is a painstaking process which involves a huge amount of human sacrifice, the building of great capacities and that creating an alternative is neither a simple nor a quick process.

Upon concluding the discussion Nataša Vučković highlighted the fact that we all know there are certain iron bars that are impenetrable. This is a core issue for the opposition. If we wish to have an honest discussion about it, I think we will be successful. The realistic picture in Serbia is that half a million people are living off of what they make under the table. We need to speak to these people. Also, she agreed that local politics is not just public service/utility politics. Even locally, people are interested in topics such as European integration and foreign policy. Our collective task now is to respond to all of these issues and challenges.

An integral recording of the debate is available on the Center for Democracy Foundation’s Facebook page.