The session of the Pljevlja Municipal Assembly, which was supposed to discuss the budget proposal for next year, was not held today due to a lack of quorum.
Out of a total of 34 councilors, 13 appeared in the assembly hall, of which only four were from the ruling coalition.
The President of the Municipal Assembly, Jovana Tošić, said that the councilors and the public will be informed about the new date of the session at a later date. Due to the failure to hold it, the local government will, by all accounts, enter the new year with temporary funding.
Five days ago, the Municipal Board of the Europe Now Movement (PES) and the Municipal Board of the Democrats of Pljevlja called on the leadership of the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) to urgently initiate coalition consultations and start the process of redefining relations within the local government, before the Municipal Assembly session.
According to information from "Vijesti", until this morning there were no meetings of the heads of municipal committees, because some of them were busy working in the Parliament of Montenegro, which was also in session over the weekend.
In a joint call for a redefinition of coalition relations, PES and Democrats stated that in the previous period there had been a "multiplication of problems and points of contention" in the functioning of the coalition government, as well as individual actions of political partners without joint coordination of key local policies. They particularly highlighted the fact that the Civic Movement URA had left the local government, which, they claimed, further increased the risk of blocking the work of the Municipal Assembly and jeopardized the lawful functioning of local self-government.
"We propose that the NSD, as the largest councilor club, invite all remaining local government constituents in order to reach a new agreement through dialogue and prevent institutional blockages," the statement said.
The two parties demand the conclusion of a new coalition agreement, with precisely defined rights, obligations and responsibilities of all partners, assessing that the 2023 coalition agreement "did not ensure mutual respect for positions."
"It is absolutely necessary to urgently enter into the process of redefining relations, which implies establishing new principles, clear boundaries of responsibility, and transparent personnel processes, in order to improve the functioning of local self-government," said PES and Democrats.
DPS councilor Marko Tošić said that today's epilogue confirms what was previously pointed out.
"The absence of a significant number of councilors confirms that the crisis in power in Pljevlja has not been resolved. It is clear to all of us that the mayor must leave for dozens of reasons that we have been problematizing for the last two years. We presented all of these reasons through two initiatives that we offered to the councilors of the ruling majority to sign, but there was no understanding among them for any of these demands," said Tošić.
He stated that the absence of councilors from the ruling majority is happening for two key reasons.
"The first reason is that one group of people, namely the Lekić-Bjeković duo, cannot stand the fact that others are announcing tenders today. This situation is irresponsible and citizens need to know why the budget will not be adopted before the new year and why we are going to temporary financing. The reasons why the mayor lost support are not those that we contained in the initiatives for his dismissal, but that one group of people cannot stand that others are announcing tenders in local self-government instead of them and thus achieving illegal material gain," said Tošić.
He cited the current pollution situation as a second reason.
"The second reason is related to the current situation in Pljevlja regarding pollution, because President Vranes, despite numerous controversial appearances, still sided with the citizens of Pljevlja and opposed Prime Minister (Milojko) Spajić and Milutin Đukanović, shifting responsibility to them for this ecological genocide that we have in Pljevlja today. Citizens should be clear that this lack of trust in the Mayor is not due to nationalism, inaction or primitivism, but precisely because of these two key reasons for the tender and addressing responsibility for ecological genocide to the Government," said Tošić.
A similar assessment was made by independent councilor Saša Ječmenica, who said that the failure to hold the session was an indicator of the situation in local government.
"This is the picture of local government. At a crucial moment for the municipality of Pljevlja, when we finally have a situation where our decades-old opponent EPCG has been cornered, a session is being avoided, because it might have heard arguments and presented evidence confirming the responsibility of the persons who caused damage to the citizens of the municipality of Pljevlja by commissioning the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant. I think this was an ideal opportunity for us as councilors to determine a strategy on how to confront this scourge," said Ječmenica.
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