Belgrade 8/2/2024
PUBLIC STATEMENT
PROTESTS AGAINST LITHIUM MINING,
OPPOSITION AND THE PRESIDENT'S OFFER
Forum for Security and Democracy expresses deep concern over the developments surrounding the protests against the mining of lithium which have - just as we have warned - turned into protests against the European Union. The ongoing protests for the protection of the environment have been seriously compromised and undermined by the political forces whose only goal is to terminate all of Serbia's integration processes with the EU and to radically politically reorient the country, to which end they are using the protests to deepen the existing political crisis in the country as goal in and of itself.
FSD is of the view that the political organizations and activists who have established their authority in Serbia and their political credibility outside of it on the advocacy for European integrations are especially to be held responsible for these developments, after they have taken a inconceivable political salto mortale by giving up on all attempts to influence the political framing of the protests themselves and relinquished that role to the anti-European forces and are now just listening to the alleged "vox populi."
FSD also notes that the increasing calls for a referendum as a mechanism for the resolution of the current situation can't overshadow justifiable questions with regards to the regulations in Serbia pertaining to environmental protection as a right guaranteed by the Constitution or the questions surrounding the defaulting on international obligations and potential consequences of such an act for the country and quality of life of its citizens.
FSD points out that it understands the political motivations behind the proposition of an eventual quasi "referendum to recall" the current Serbian president, which he himself has proposed, and notes that, regardless of possible legal arguments on which such a referendum would be founded on, such a referendum would not alleviate the questions about the quality and the functioning of government and social institutions but rather underscore that the authority and popularity of the president depicts their unsatisfactory state.
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