SSP Deputy leader confirms party will skip next talks with Serbia’s authorities

Marinika Tepic confirmed to N1 talks show what the SSP leader Dragan Djilas told the independent Danas daily earlier of Thursday that SSP would not take part in any further talks unless they were open to the public.

Serbia’s opposition says it will decide in the second half of September whether to boycott the general elections next March and has given the regime until mid-September to cede to its demands for free and fair elections and free media.

Tepic, an SSP Deputy leader, recalled that the party said in July the opposition should have launched a boycott campaign “since, as you see, nothing has changed.”

In what looked like the regime’s willingness to compromise, the opposition accepted the invitation for a round table discussion on some election issues, but it said nothing worth mentioning happened.

Tepic told N1 on Thursday that her party accepted the invitation for the first meeting out of respect for the Belgrade University Faculty of Political Science (FPN), but that the organisers broke the promise with untrue statements that the dialogue was constructive and that an agreement was possible.

"That is untrue. There was no either dialogue or negotiations, nor did we see anything constructive. We live in a dictatorship with advancing fascism and elections are not normal," Tepic said.

The Friday’s meeting will also be held under Chatham House rules behind closed doors but this time with statements to the media afterwards.

It should focus on campaign financing, primarily on improving control of finances with attention devoted to the use of public resources in election campaigns, campaigning by officials and transparency, as well as problems which can be resolved in the short term.

A proposal of solutions to problems to be resolved after elections will be made at the meeting.