Branislav Lecic, the newly elected chairman of the Democratic Party, who received the support of around 76 percent of DS members in the party’s internal elections on Saturday, estimates that this is a great success for him and an indicator that Democrats support him personally and the “three points” policy. It represents.
On the messages of the current president Zoran Lutovac not to recognize the elections, Lecic says that it is impossible, considering that they were carried out according to the party’s statute and in a democratic way. Namely, some 4,500 DS members from all over Serbia went to the polls and, after counting 80 percent of the votes, Lecic, who was the only candidate, received the support of 73.6 percent of the members.
– According to our estimates, the final number of votes should be around 76 percent. I am very satisfied with that fact because it shows that they also voted for the team that I proposed, that is, the people, the veterans of the DS, who will be the future vice presidents. That means they supported us personally and the plan I presented as a future DS program.
photo: Marina Lopicic
The current president of the DS, Zoran Lutovac, does not recognize the elections. He even went to the Ministry of State Administration and Local Autonomy on that occasion. Do the elections have legitimacy?
– They have full legitimacy. We did everything according to the statute and that can be easily demonstrated in court. If, in addition to everything, this rigid current with Lutovac at the helm is blind and deaf to all this and continues with absolutist behavior and exclusivity, then the question arises as to how far they are democrats in general, because in democracy the only legitimacy is the voice of those who support you. If you do not respect the members who voted, when does Lutovac represent in the DS? This is not, let’s be clear, a personal matter, I have nothing to do with him, nor do I think he or I personally decide. It is decided by the members who democratically, by vote, massively supported this change and this team. Tomorrow, I suppose, it would be the same in the country, if you think that you are a god and that the party is only you, or a minority of pawns that you have gathered around you, then the question is what the citizens can expect from you tomorrow. There must be an ethic of responsibility, and if you are a Democrat and a member of a party that was founded to protect democracy, you must respect the votes of the members.
Despite all the arguments he presents, it is clear that Lutovac will not only leave the party leadership …
– Here, I invite you publicly to define who you represent. Whose representative is he and what is the policy he defends when he behaves like this? At the same time, all the time seriously violating the statute of the party, but also the human rights of individual members, without any responsibility. What is your ethical and political agenda when you have been behaving like this with your members for two years? It violates any integrity that is programmatically written into the match. I have seen different political leaders and I know the full political landscape since the beginning of the DS’s existence and I can only say: I have never met a similar character, someone who became a fake Democrat overnight. He is a democrat only if he behaves like this and recognizes democratic results.
photo: Nemanja Nikolić
However, Lutovac alone does not seem. You yourself have repeatedly indicated that you have serious support, although it does not come from the party itself.
– Yes. As the fake president of DS, Lutovac is tasked with destroying a party that annoys both the regime and the opposition. That is why I ask you this publicly: Is this a dirty job for the leader of the Freedom and Justice Party, Dragan Djilas? And I ask him: What does he have to do with DS and why does he regulate relationships in someone else’s home? What are Djilas’s interests in dealing with a party whose member he hasn’t been for years? Well, through Lutovac, he literally created a puppet theater on the DS.
Yesterday’s election results were in the shadow of the scandal. Did you expect the individuals, led by Dušan Kostadinović and Dragan Rakić, to go so far as to violently break into party headquarters, smash the ballot boxes, knock the chessboard out of the building?
– We are still all shocked by what they were able to do, that Lutovac went so far and sent his people to burst into space and stop the democratic decision-making process. Is that a democratic argument? It was an absolute humiliation for both the DS and Lutovac himself.
On the other hand, what do you promise the members now, if you are going to lead the DS?
– I promise that my team and I will follow the policy that I proposed and that the unification of the DS will follow and that any point of disagreement will be erased. In Serbia there is much more of that history than politics: saying one thing and doing another. What I think, I say and what I say, I do. My actions will show by themselves what my intentions are.
Who will be your vice presidents?
– Dr. Milica Slijepcevic, Jovana Jovanovic de Kragujevac, Dragoslav Sumarac, Voja Jankovic and Petar Radojcic.
How will the confirmation of your choice be made technically now?
– Now the Party Assembly must confirm the election, and it will be organized as soon as possible, in the next seven days. Later we went on to register with the Ministry of State Administration and Local Autonomy.
BRANKO RUŽIĆ FOR THE MESSENGER OF LUTOVČ’S LETTER
If necessary, we will react in accordance with the law.
photo: Zorana Jevtić
The Democratic Party sent a letter to the Ministry of State Administration and Local Autonomy, in order, they said, to prevent the possible registration of the party faction that organized the elections for the presidency of the DS, which Lecic won. They also mentioned that Lecic was expelled from the party.
The Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Branko Ružić, told Kurir that the ministry, if necessary, will react according to the law.
– The Ministry works exclusively in accordance with the law and this form is present in cases related to the Registry of Political Parties. No dose of politicization is necessary in a particular case. Yes, and when there is a formal need for this ministry to be declared, the entire process will be carried out in the only way possible, and that is, legally. After all, as in all other cases – said Ruzic.
