Opposition Challenges Vojvodina Statute

By Milen Vesovic
Novi Sad, Dec.5th, 2009 (Serbia Today) - It's been a few days since the adoption of the Vojvodina Autonomous Province Statute and the transfer of responsibilities to the Serbian Parliament. However, the campaign against the newly adopted act is far from over.
The opposition still claims that the adopted act constitutes illegal acts of separatism and is anti-constitutional. The main opponents of the Statute are the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), New Serbia (NS), the Serbian Party Advanced (SNS) and Serbian Radical Party (SRS).
President of the DSS and former Yugoslav President and Former Prime Minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, also believes that the statute is separatist. DSS members also expressed the view that Vojvodina should not have so many responsibilities, and that it should remain on the republic level.
The Serbian Radical Party goes furthest in condemning the statute. SRS deputy in the Serbian Parliament, Aleksandar Martinovic, has expressed the view that the exemption of visas to EU countries were actually gifts from Western politicians for passing the new Serbian Vojvodina Statute.
Currently the largest party in the Government of Serbia, the Democratic Party (DS), does not see any new acts of separatism in which the law. Senior official of the DS and the Minister of the Government of Serbia, Milan Markovic said, “I do not see any difference in the fact that Novi Sad is called the capital or administrative center.”
A similar position is presented by the President of the Serbian Parliament and senior official of the Socialist Party of Serbia - Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic. Djukic-Dejanovic said that Serbia needs decentralization, and hopes that Kragujevac, will soon become the capital of a new region in central Serbia.
The party that has is behind the new statute, the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) considered that the adoption of the new statute the beginning of the decentralization process of the whole of Serbia.
LDP deputy in the Parliament of Serbia, Slobodan Maras believes that Vojvodina deserves greater autonomy, primarily economic, but this is currently the maximum for the Serbian Constitution and the ruling coalition in Serbia.
It should be noted, that the parties challenging the constitutionality of the new statute and and calling it a separatist act (Democratic Party of Serbia, New Serbia, the Serbian Radical Party and Serbian Advanced Party) have never been in power in the Executive Council, nor the Government of Vojvodina. Over the last 20 years, the same parties have never been part of the ruling coalition in Vojvodina. Authorities in Vojvodina have always been constituted by the Democratic Party, the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians.
It should be noted, the Constitution of Serbia, which was passed in 2006, had less than 50% support from of the citizens of Vojvodina. It was a great victory for those parties in Vojvodina (the LSV and the LDP), which believed that the Serbian Constitution must allow greater autonomy for Vojvodina.