October 12,  2019                                                                                                           SERBIAN VERSION

PUBLIC STATEMENT  

GRATITUDE AND SUPPORT TO THE EU PARLIAMENT  MP's
FOR THEIR MEDIATION IN THE RESOLVING OF POLITICAL DISPUTES
 

Forum for Security and Democracy welcomes the beginning of this week’s talks in Belgrade on the improvement of election conditions ahead of the upcoming Serbian parliamentary elections, with the mediation of the EU Parliament, i.e. Mr. David McAlister, Mr. Knut Fleckenstein and Eduard Kukan to whom we, by means of this announcement, express our gratitude and support!

We view these talks as crucial for the resolution of the ongoing political crisis in Serbia in a way which won’t derail its EU integration and we consider them a major contribution towards the resolution of numerous problems plaguing the country in a peaceful manner. 

Bearing in mind the significance of these discussions, when it comes to the refusal of certain political parties – parliamentary as well as those outsides of parliament – to participate in said discussions, Forum for Security and Democracy can only interpret it as a gesture through which those parties are, repeatedly and unambiguously, distancing themselves from Euro-Atlantic integrations and opting for the furtherment of particular interests which are either directly or indirectly opposed to those integration processes. 

Furthermore, Forum for Security and Democracy remarks statements that underline the fact that Mr. Fleckenstein and Mr. Kukan are former members of the EU Parliament as malign political primitivism! FSD wishes to emphasize that they were given the mandate to participate in these talks between the Serbian government and the opposition by the new convocation of the EU Parliament and it’s competent committees precisely because of their knowledge of Serbian local affairs.

Forum for Security and Democracy is especially concerned by and decries the fact that the loudest voice among the parties boycotting discussions on the improvement of election conditions comes from the non-parliamentary opposition, particularly the opposition parties that themselves proposed European mediation in talks with the Serbian ruling coalition in the first place – and which, now, use those same talks to discredit the pro-European agenda; and in doing so they are manifesting, first and foremost, their own political hypocrisy and ineptitude to be a reliable interlocutor with the EU in the future.

Forum for Security and Democracy wishes to point out that continued calls for the boycott of the coming elections and advocacy for their failure as well as attempts to delegitimize them are but a continuation of the overture for extra-institutional activities and radicalization of the imposing of political ideas and agendas that are irreconcilable with the country’s future EU membership plans. In fact, by taking this course of action, those parties are acknowledging the fact that they themselves doubt that those policies would be met with popular support, especially among those voters whose support they crave and as whose exclusive representatives they are trying to impose themselves as.

Beograd, 12. okrobar 2019.                                                                         INFORMATIVNI SERVIS FBD