In the continuation of the constitutive session of the Serbian National Assembly, Nebojsa Stefanovic from the Progressive Party has been elected the parliament speaker, and also appointed are vice presidents and secretary general of the Assembly. The support to Stefanovic, along with the future ruling coalition, was extended by the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians. Suggested as the secretary general is Jana Ljubicic from the Progressive party, and unlike in the previous composition, the parliament will have four, instead of six vice presidents. The candidates for those posts are Gordana Comic from the Democratic Party, Konstantin Arsenovic from the United Pensioners Party, Nenad Popovic from the Democratic Party of Serbia and Vesna Kovac from the United Regions. The report of Jelica Tapuskovic.
At the beginning of the session, whip of the Progressive Party MP group Aleksandar Vucic said that the Assembly should be a place where democracy was developed in its best possible shape. In explaining the proposal of his party to have Nebojsa Stefanovic as the parliament speaker, Vucic has stressed that his party has the chance to start the changes in Serbia and suggest the leader of the parliament, whose main task will be to spread the spirit of tolerance and unity.
However, the reminder of the constitutive session was marked by sharp polemics between the leader of the Progressive Party and members of the Democratic Party, with harsh words coming from each side. So, Vucic had arguments with whip of the Democratic Party Dragoljub Micunovic and vice president Dusan Petrovic, as well as Nada Kolundzija and Borislav Stefanovic. The Democrats have repeated they will not support the election of Nebojsa Stefanovic as the parliament speaker, and the same thing was confirmed by all other opposition parties, except the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, whose leader Balint Pasztor has pointed Stefanovic is a good solution for the post.
Prime Minister designate and leader of the Socialist Party Ivica Dacic has commented on the accusations from the opposition parties in view of the decision by the coalition around his party to join the government with the Progressives and the United Regions. Dacic said the elections had ended two moths ago and how he was astonished to see just to which extent some people dwelled in the past. President of the United Regions Mladjan Dinkic also was not spared criticism from the opposition, but he has denied all the accusations.
Chairman of the constitutive session Zaharije Trnavcevic was often forced to interrupt the speakers and warn them about the allowed time. The interesting thing was that among the MPs were almost all ministers from the government of Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, including himself. The new composition of the National Assembly will be comprised of 13 MP groups, headed either by party leaders of highly positioned officials.
Upon the completion of the constitutive session, the parliament should elect the government in a new session, and that one is expected on Tuesday already, since the bill on ministries has arrived to the parliament, which envisages that the future Serbian Government will have 17 ministries.