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INTERVIEW: DR ZORAN STOILJKOVIC

WHY ARE THE ELECTIONS IMPORTANT FOR UBU ‘’NEZAVISNOST’’?




Belgrade, January 22, 2007
Why are the elections important for UBU ‘’Nezavisnost’’?

They are important for two reasons. Firstly, for all employees and citizens of Serbia, because in the situation of political vacuum, which emerged because the minority government could neither rule with full power nor the opposition could overthrow it, a solution was found in adopting a new Constitution, which was an acceptable base for everyone for scheduling elections. The elections should lead to a more stable authority having full ruling power in a difficult and complex situation faced by Serbia. An additional reason for importance of the elections for ‘’Nezavisnost’’ Union is in that we can then see who will be on power and will have a legitimate authority, and the demands we can state associated with considering a three-party system, social dialogue, labor and social legislation and feasible and viable economic development strategy, in order to assume an adequate position and try, through all mechanisms left to us and communications with parties, and even more through influencing work of the parliamentary committees and through social dialogue, but also the public and unions’ and civil offers, to maximize our influence and really be an unavoidable factor on the social and political scene. Therefore, the first thing to do is to see who will pursue that policy and then state clear demands which will be a reliable criterion based on which we shall take a position toward such authority.

What is the attitude of UBU ‘’Nezavisnost’’ toward the pre-election promises made by some political parties?

The thing that is happening now for the first time since multi-party elections in 1990 is that citizens’ and employees’ priority finally became the priority of political offer. The following issues are predominant: standard of living, life quality, employment, economic development, fight against corruption, i.e. on what we insisted for a long time, and everyone gives this kind of offer to citizens with rather similar assumptions. The thing that citizens, employees and ‘’Nezavisnost’’ Union have to evaluate is the extent of persuasiveness, compared to previous results, capacity, having in mind the international support, through which the parties can really do the job. This is something that should be a principle. Naturally, it is rather difficult to cope with such similar offers, but what was their past labor and our previous experience with them should be a criterion to be accepted both by our Union and each member concerning specific commitments.

We know that it is distasteful to predict possible results, but how does this seem from your viewpoint?

As much as the public opinion research results show presently, the campaign is a long one, slightly intensive, dragged out, discontinued by many holidays, all parties keep their key arguments for the campaign culmination which will be in the next few days, but it is expected that coming out will be approximately as at the previous parliamentary elections in 2003, i.e. about 3,6 and 4 million citizens, or about 55 – 60%. That the number of ‘’dispersed’’ votes, namely, those not exceeding the limit, will be rather large even this time, that many parties on the lists shall be below the limit, and there is not much dilemma concerning those who will certainly exceed that limit and be the leading parties in the Parliament. The influence of the Democratic Party and Radicals is somewhere equal. Immediately after them come Serbian Democratic Party and People’s Party, namely, coalition. It is rather certain that the G17 will also exceed the elections threshold due to a very intense campaign it had. The chances to enter the Parliament have the Liberal Democratic Party and a group around the LDP and Ceda Jovanovic, and there are still rather realistic chances that the Socialist Party of Serbia exceeds this elections threshold as well, whereby this is very uncertain than ever, until now, because there are many actors like ‘’PUPS’’ (Association of Retired Persons of Serbia), something which limits their electoral body. Other groups only have mathematical chances to exceed the limit. Of course, there is a special thing this time with the so-called natural limit for minorities, so that it is realistic to expect that this low limit of 0,4%, namely, 12-14.000 votes, will exceed several political organizations, ethnic minorities, and that the minorities will, in this way or another, have between 10 and 15 deputies (members of parliament).

Why the UBU ‘’Nezavisnost’’ hasn’t committed itself more precisely in the sense of support to certain parties and political groups?

Simply because it is our tendency and we have always expected that the political scene would become so transparent that we would have a reliable, steady, relevant partner we have been looking for on this democratic and social-democratic field of political offers. Unfortunately, in the meantime, in the last two or three years, when we made an attempt to realize this through various agreements and cooperation, there haven’t been adequate responses and a serious offer from these parties, so that we are still reserved, because we have no guarantees to confirm and say to our members and employees with certainty that someone has really deserved by his conduct so far that we pass this clear message and state our commitment. This position still remains that, by insisting on our demands and platform, we appraise this as something moving within the limits of democratic bloc and something on what ‘’Nezavisnost’’ Union has always insisted, that regardless of the offer concerning the social-economic level, serious chances to achieve the objective have only the parties with a clearly pronounced democratic, reformist and pro-European orientation.

Can Unions at this time, either individually or together, if they were united, decisively influence the election results?

The Unions can possibly do this, simply because with all reservations and limitations and critical read-out of the data, all Unions in Serbia still have between 730.000 and 780.000 members with a unique offer. One side supports a specific party or coalition, the other supports a broader bloc, and the third side is on the position of equidistance towards everyone and they have no preferences, they simply spoil that kind of offer, and what will enhance Unions’ political negotiator’s position. At the same time, the thing we have to work on is to discuss the current issues seriously with all those Unions having the prefix of autonomous unions, not to speak in a democratic way, namely, what is a joint platform and how to improve our negotiator’s position then. Unfortunately, as this hasn’t occurred, it is obvious that we cannot do that on the elections this time, but it is something that is necessary in order that we gain a stronger negotiator’s position.

 
     
 
 
 
 
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