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The President of the Serbian National Assembly, Ivica Dačić, announced upon taking office that he would seriously work to improve the so-called non-existent reputation of Parliament. And he did some nice things, but thanks to his, to put it mildly, frivolous price statements at the parliamentary restaurant, he did a lot to keep none of it noticed. The restaurant and its prices have once again filled the tabloid columns, and that, of course, is not something that elevates the reputation of parliament. On the contrary.
When Dacic was elected president, almost all progressives talked about it in the debate all day, and that’s a large number, but no one said anything about the Dacic candidate. Anyone who watched the broadcast, but did not know what was on the agenda, would think that the work of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was being discussed, as SNS deputies took the time to point out all the successes of their leader and head of state. . And while they concealed their indignation in the hall that such an important function was being assigned to Dacic, in off-the-record conversations in the hall they gave vent to their discontent.
When Dacic told reporters that he would take serious care of prices at the parliamentary restaurant and jokingly stated that he could present vending machines to MPs, “well, the more money they put in, the more they should have coffee,” no one was happier than progressives. They were given the opportunity to say publicly what they could not in the parliamentary debate. Immediately, with good reason, he was accused of demagoguery. Milenko Jovanov (SNS) told him, via the tabloids, of course: “If that’s the biggest problem in the assembly, then we are great!” Dragan Shormaz (SNS) asked how Dacic could do that, as the parliamentary restaurant is under the direction of the Joint Affairs Directorate, that is, the government, “and added:” Why didn’t he do that while he was prime minister? The true president of the assembly must make an effort to strengthen the role of parliament in society, to improve working conditions and the status of deputies. “
Other progressives also reacted, and Dacic himself, responding to the journalist’s accusations that his account of the prices at the restaurant was pure demagoguery, said: “Well, the demagoguery is precisely the fact that every report by you journalists is reduced to a story of the parliamentary cafe “. So that it was no longer an issue, I raised that issue. “It will not be that the issue of all journalists is the parliamentary restaurant, both the deputies and Dacic know it, but there is not a tabloid that does not respond to comment on the prices of coffee soup and mixed meats, and how much toilet paper is used. This is a topic they are willing to talk about all they want, if you invite them to comment on a controversial article of the law, or the staff solution, or They will even present themselves by chance.With this behavior, all together, they participate in the demonization of the National Assembly and its presentation to the public as a place where the deputies come to “eat” and have “free” coffee.
Dragan Markovic Palma, the leader of JS, made sure that this demonization of the assembly did not go down, even after seven days, from the tabloid columns, in the discussion of the budget rebalancing. What a deficit, it would not exist at all, according to Markovic, only if the parliamentary coffee cost not seven, but 80 dinars. That can be concluded from his discussion, as, as he said, he had the only objection to rebalancing due to the prices in the parliamentary restaurant ?! He said that Line Minister Siniša Mali drank three coffees, concluding that he would have had two if they were more expensive! As one of the few extremely professional ministers who treats MPs with respect, who does not find it difficult to explain all points of his proposal in a simple and understandable way, Mali was silent on this “objection”. What could a serious man say to something like this?
Markovic also had a brilliant, populist idea, and how different, that the same coffee and mixed meats have a price for parliamentarians and another for employees of the parliament and journalists! He recalled that almost five hundred people work in the assembly, many work for a minimum and spend much more time in parliament than any member of parliament: they need something to eat, at a price they can afford. And where did the journalists come from? Well, someone should write about your “fantastic” proposal. Every serious journalist will experience this as an insult, but he did not address those who are interested in what is written in the laws, or when the assembly elects various positions of responsibility, or why many deputies use, to put it mildly , inappropriate vocabulary in discussions. It was addressed to those who from time to time, when they run out of topics for the bombastic headlines, stop by a restaurant for lunch, have coffee and get a price list, and then the headlines appear: “Lezilebovići”, “Neradnici, izjelice “…
However, Markovic, who once invented that deputies’ salaries are 200,000 dinars, although they are still half less, is not to blame. The Speaker of Parliament, especially Ivica Dačić, a man who was a highly successful Foreign Minister, who, like no President before him, received hundreds of congratulations from extremely important people, does not deserve to further damage Parliament’s reputation by talking about the parliamentary restaurant. on low branches. Instead, it could deal with real problems. When he does, the National Assembly may be close to becoming “this upper house”, as the deputies like to say, although this statement of his, sadly, serves as a mockery.
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