Serbian parliament committee fines opposition MPs

The MPs were ordered to pay a total of 70,000 Dinars (1 Euro – 118 Dinars) at a session chaired by committee chairman Aleksandar Martinovic MP of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) which also decided to give the president, MPs and their staff seven percent higher salaries.  

Asked by reporters why only opposition MPs were fined, he said ruling party MPs did not offend Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic. Martinovic said Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader and MP Vojislav Seselj was not fined for calling opposition Democratic Party (DS) Aleksandra Jerkov an Ustashi whore (alluding to the WW 2 Croatian fascists) because the insult was not voiced into a microphone and “does not count”.  

The money from the fines is supposed to be paid into a Solidarity Fund. The committee decided to send more than 120,000 Dinars from that fund to soup kitchens operated by the Raska-Prizren Bishopric in Kosovo.