The former prime minister and official of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in power, Ana Brnabić, was elected the speaker of the Assembly of Serbia on Wednesday.
Out of 158 deputies present in the hall, 153 voted for, while five were against her appointment.
Ana Brnabić was nominated by SNS, a party which, together with its partners in its electoral list, has a majority of 129 out of 250 seats in the Assembly.
The proposal for Brnabić to be elected Speaker of the Assembly was followed by a three-day debate, which was characterized by insults and shouting at the deputies.
During the debate, the opposition MPs criticized the Government’s proposal for the election of Brnabić as the head of the Assembly.
The opposition deputy from the National Movement of Serbia, Borislav Novakovic, said that the Speaker of the Assembly should be moderate and show composure during the session.
“I only noticed limitations from Ana Brnabić”, he said, saying that on two occasions she insulted the opposition.
“I think Mrs. Brnabić, you should work on your vocabulary”, he added.
The leader of the SNS and Minister of Defense in the Technical Government of Serbia, Miloš Vučević, has called Novaković, as reported by the media, “the biggest criminal in Novi Sad”, claiming that he has “stolen” money from the state budget .
“Zvonko Veselinović is an example of honesty for you”, Vučević said.
At the end of 2021, the US Department of Finance labeled Zvonko Veselinović as the leader of an organized criminal group and as one of the most notorious corrupt figures in Kosovo and consequently placed him on the sanctions list.
The head of the parliamentary group of the ruling party, Millenko Jovanov, said that the opposition list “Serbia against violence” divides people and imitates the elite.
“You are an elite as I am an astronaut. Well, you are such an elite,” said Jovanov.
Brnabić said that the opposition has asked the European Parliament to “abolish the sovereignty of Serbia and the Assembly”. She said that the European Parliament will not be above the Serbian parliament.
“An EP resolution, which you brought yourself and which demands the removal of Serbia’s sovereignty, was not enough for you, so that the EP could suspend our laws. And that shame was not enough for you, you are threatening us with a new EP resolution”, said Brnabić.
On February 8, the European Parliament (EP) passed a resolution calling for an international investigation into irregularities in the December elections and the suspension of EU finances to Serbia if it is proven that the authorities committed electoral fraud.
The opposition coalition Serbia against violence had requested that the constitutive session of the Assembly of Serbia be held after February 8, when the deputies of the European Parliament will announce the December elections in Serbia.
Reports from local and international monitoring organizations, including the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), indicated that there were electoral irregularities in the December 17 elections in Serbia. The ruling SNS and the state leadership have rejected these accusations.
On 18 December, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) reported that the elections were marred by irregularities, misuse of public funds, media dominance by state president Aleksandar Vučić, negative campaigning and fear-mongering.
The constitutive session of the parliament began on February 6, when the mandates of the deputies were verified. Then the opposition MPs took the oath in the assembly hall.
The constitutive session continued on March 18.
