FoNet sources say ruling party ready to listen to opposition

The sources said that the talks mediated by European Parliament envoys Eduard Kukan and Knut Fleckstein were not like the earlier meetings at the Faculty of Political Science with no raised voices, adding that their impression was that the authorities were prepared to listen to proposals this time.  

The unnamed sources said that Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) official Vladimir Djukanovic told the opposition that the authorities are prepared to “give the opposition everything” and that they can have 24 hours of access to the Serbian state TV (RTS) immediately. They said that Nova Stranka leader Zoran Zivkovic agreed immediatelly but that Djukanovic replied saying that every hour on the RTS would cost them five percent of the vote.  

The FoNet sources said that it was a good thing that the European Parliament envoys saw what they think is inappropriate behavior.   Kukan and Fleckstein did not comment anything but had records of the meeting, the FoNet sources said.  

The news agency said that there were several demands to dismiss Olivera Zekic from the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) but that the ruling coalition officials claimed that the laws introduced by their predecessors did not allow that.  

The Nova Stranka officials wanted the REM abolished while Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) leader Cedomir Jovanovic called for a postponement of the regular elections and a transitional government, several of the sources said.  

The agenda of the meeting which FoNet was granted access to included talks into the evening and night but the sources said the meeting ended earlier because the entire opposition was not present.  

The sources said that several meeting participants said the European Parliament envoys and officials of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS a member of the ruling coalition) agreed with meeting participants who said that the talks in November should not go ahead without the rest of the opposition.