Serbia's opposition to MEP: Start inter-party dialogue as soon as possible

The letter reads as follows:

Dear Members of the European Parliament,

As representatives of the pro-European opposition parties in Serbia – Freedom and Justice Party (SSP), Democratic Party (DS) and Free Citizens' Movement (PSG) - we would like to draw your attention to our concerns about the anticipated continuation of the inter-party dialogue in Serbia facilitated by the European Parliament.

Since the last "election" in June, President Vučić admitted the boycott had achieved its goal by emphasizing that essential democracy does not exist in Serbia due to the call for early elections before the government was even constituted. And the fact that Serbia has no opposition members of Parliament is a direct slap to democracy in Serbia. Without a thorough and inclusive democratic process, nothing can be accomplished in putting Serbia back to the path of the rule of law and EU accession.

We must also note that the upcoming dialogue is being announced in an atmosphere of enormous abuse of power, the mocking of opposition efforts and initiatives, brutal suppression of all independent voices and the President himself in total and obsessive control of vaccine distribution on national television, which, you must admit, is so far away from anything that we can witness in a normal European society.

Regarding our specific concerns about the dialogue, first of all, we believe that it should start as soon as possible, as more delays can significantly hurt the dialogue process by diminishing the chances for reaching an agreement that would be acceptable for all sides and leaving enough time to ensure its implementation. We, therefore, insist that the inter-party dialogue should be launched sooner rather than later, regardless of the epidemiological conditions that might prevent face to face meetings.

Second, we are concerned about the lack of political will among the ruling parties for accepting solutions that would successfully resolve the political crisis. We have already witnessed the ruling parties' attempt to trick both the Serbian public and the European Parliament that meaningful changes were implemented as the result of the previous phase of the inter-party dialogue, and it appears they will attempt to do so again. The situation with the Regulatory body for Electronic media (REM) is the best example of the lack of will to make genuine steps forward and to "tick the boxes" without any substantial improvement.

Third, we insist that we should be consulted about the topics and the anticipated inter-party dialogue format. The legitimacy of our demands and of our position in the dialogue has been confirmed by the fact that in the 2020 election no opposition parties won seats in the Parliament. Without a meaningful agreement with the opposition parties, there will be no resolution of the political crisis and no return of democracy, and therefore no EU membership perspective. Because of this, our concerns and our position regarding the dialogue and the topics it will cover should not be neglected.

We certainly hope for a successful dialogue and a successful resolution of the political crisis that would restore democracy in Serbia and open up the continuation of Serbia's EU accession process.

Best regards,

Zoran Lutovac, President of Democratic Party
Pavle Grbović, President of Free Citizens Movement
Dragan Đilas, President of Freedom and Justice Party