Serbian Radical Party appeals to Milosevic party to stop supporting government
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - March 20, 2006 Monday

Excerpt from report by Belgrade-based private BKTV on 19 March

[Presenter] One day after Slobodan Milosevic's funeral, the Serbian Radical Party [SRS] has appealed to the Socialist Party of Serbia [SPS] to topple [Prime Minister] Vojislav Kostunica's government. The SPS responds that this idea will be discussed after the party ranks have been consolidated.

[Reporter] The SRTS secretary-general Aleksandar Vucic has said that Milosevic's funeral has taken the masks of everyone's face in Serbia, that political sides are now clearly defined and that it is high time for changes.

[Vucic] We are convinced that the Socialist Party of Serbia cannot and must not support those in power, [that it] cannot and must not support the Serbian government, because that is what all the citizens asked for yesterday [18 March], and there were several hundred thousands of them who gathered outside the Serbia-Montenegro Assembly.

[Reporter] The SRS believes that [Serbia-Montenegro] Defence Minister Zoran Stankovic's announcement that retired generals [Dragoljub] Ojdanic and [Bozidar] Delic will be punished because they attended Milosevic's funeral in army uniforms is shameful. The party announced that it would propose at its presidential collegiate body session on Tuesday [21 March] that Minister Stankovic, as well as other government members, be dismissed.

[Vucic] Since it is clear that we will have an assembly session in eight days [27 March], we expect that there no longer be majority in the assembly, and that we have elections, because I believe that no-one in the SPS has the right to support such a government.

Source: BKTV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1455 gmt 19 Mar 06

Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
Posted for Fair Use only.