Belan: We will not allow forced administration to be imposed due to the inaction of the Tivat Municipal Council, but we will not remain silent about Ratko Mladić's admirers either.

Although the councilors of the citizens' groups Narod pobjeđuje (NP), led by Mayor Željko Komnenović, and Krtoljska lista (KL), led by the Deputy Mayor Jovan Brinić, announced that they would not attend the session of the Tivat Municipal Assembly (MA) as long as the President of the local parliament, Miljan Marković (New Serbian Democracy), is at its head, the opposition in the local parliament made it possible for them to have a quorum and vote together on a total of 33 agenda items that Marković included in the agenda of this session.

There is currently a sharp conflict in the Tivat Municipal Assembly among some members of the ruling coalition, which is why today's session was uncertain.

The quorum for the session was provided by the opposition: DPS, the European Alliance and HGI, to a part of the ruling majority, whose five councilors are boycotting the session.

However, the President of the Assembly Miljan Marković had to withdraw almost all the proposed items from the agenda because, apart from the Committee for Social Activities, chaired by his party colleague from the NSD Milanka Brajković, the other parliamentary committees did not discuss or take a position on them.

Without the opinion of the committee, the Assembly cannot consider the materials on the agenda at the plenum.

For the same reason, Marković withdrew from the agenda his proposal for amendments to the Decision on the working bodies of the Municipal Assembly, with which he tried to prevent the blockage of the work of the committees by their presidents from the ranks of the civic list Narod pobjeđuje.

HGI councilor Ilija Janović was bothered by the increased media interest in today's session and political events in the Tivat Municipal Assembly, so, referring to the Rules of Procedure, he insisted that the President of the Municipal Assembly Miljan Marković announce "who are the accredited journalists who can cover today's session."

"Either we will respect the procedures or not. I do not know these people and if they do not have accreditation, they have no business here. It is questionable that the Parliament as an institution is not respected," said Janović.

Tivat Action councilor Sanja Vuković opposed this, pointing out that by doing what Janović insists on, the municipal council would be "preventing someone from doing their job."

"We have nothing to hide here, and God willing, more media will come and show that what we have been publicly criticized for in recent days is not true," said Vuković.

After the Municipal Assembly accepted to vote on the confirmation of the decision of the Council of the Tivat City Library to appoint Vesna Barbić as director, a break was given because the procedure for seeking the official opinion of the parliamentary committees, as well as the Mayor of the Municipality, Željko Komnenović, must be completed.

After the break, the President of the Municipal Assembly Miljan Marković stated that the committees had not expressed their views on the material for this item, nor had the President of the Municipality Željko Komnenović submitted his opinion on the material within the deadline set for him.

Therefore, not a single item on the agenda could be discussed or decided upon.

Meanwhile, the opposition from the ranks of the DPS and the European Union left the assembly hall, leaving 11 government councilors without a quorum.

Nikola Došljak (DPS), Vatroslav Belan (European Alliance) and Igor Petković (European Alliance) previously said that the opposition would not allow the dissolution of the Municipal Assembly due to its inaction and the introduction of compulsory administration by the Government because, as they said, this would play into the hands of Mayor Željko Komnenović (People Wins) and his associates in the election year.

They said that, however, they could not remain silent about the move of the President of the Municipal Assembly Miljan Marković, who a few days ago posted a picture of the deceased, finally convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić on his Facebook profile and expressed condolences on the occasion of Mladić's death, and that they would leave the Municipal Assembly session because of this.

"We were waiting for the session to open today, but we will not give further legitimacy to the president of the municipal council who crossed the "red line" by sending condolences for the death of a war criminal from that position. We must react to this move by the president of the municipal council. The European Union will not enter a coalition with admirers of Ratko Mladić under any circumstances, but we will not allow the president of the municipality, Komnenović, to introduce compulsory administration in the city," said Belan before the DPS and ES councilors left the hall.

However, councilor and president of the Croatian Civic Initiative Adrijan Vuksanović remained in it until the end of today.

Although he had previously "stinged" Marković by alluding to Mladić's funeral in Belgrade, saying that "he knows that today is a special day for the president of the Municipal Assembly, who would probably be somewhere else and not here," Vuksanović still remained in the hall with Marković and the rest of the ruling coalition until the end.

He said that "HGI is here because it is our obligation to the citizens who vote for us and it is not in our interest to impose a compulsory administration."

It is in the interest of those who want to keep their seats at all costs - said the HGI leader, adding that the party "is not eager for power because it is not guided by it, but rather by principles."

Other government councilors from the ranks of the Democrats, PES, Tivat Action, and independent councilor Sandra Sindik, in sharp statements, rejected the accusations of the People Wins, which in the meantime called them out on social media for allegedly betraying the electoral will of the people of Tivat in 2020 and 2022 and cooperating with the DPS.

Independent councilor Sandra Sindik said that she left the local ruling coalition a long time ago and that because of that she did not attend the sessions of the Assembly Committee for Elections and Appointments on several occasions and left it without a quorum, "which is why I, and not Miljan Marković, who was publicly criticized for this, practically blocked the confirmation of the appointment of Vučeta Stanišić as director of the Municipal Company at the Assembly session."

"Marković, who was publicly "outraged", was not at fault because as the president of the Municipal Assembly he could not - without pointing a gun at me - force me to come to the Committee meetings," said the Syndik.

Before the session, none of the items that Marković included on the agenda had passed the prescribed procedure before the parliamentary committees, which is a necessary condition for the plenum to be able to discuss and express its opinion on them at all.

This includes one of the three items that Marković requested yesterday to be included in the agenda under the so-called urgent procedure - the Proposal for a Decision on amending the Decision on the establishment of working bodies of the Parliament.

By amending this decision, Marković, in agreement with part of the opposition, is trying to overcome the blockade that Komnenović's National Party has brought him into, because the cadres of that civic list, which is boycotting the work of parliament while Marković is at the head of the Assembly, are the presidents of almost all key parliamentary committees.

The chairmen of the committees from the National Party will not convene and hold sessions of these working bodies due to the conflict with Marković and his NSD, which has been behind all the moves made by the Tivat Municipal Council president so far, including possible cooperation with the opposition DPS and the European Union on this specific issue, which is crucial for Marković to remain in the chair of the Municipal Council president until the local elections on June 13 next year.

By amending the Decision, Marković proposes to introduce a "deputy president" in the composition of parliamentary committees, who would be given the same powers as the previously elected presidents of those committees, in accordance with the Statute and Rules of Procedure.

However, the main formal obstacle to the realization of his intention is the Statute of the Municipality of Tivat itself, which in Article 37, paragraph 1, explicitly states that "the working bodies of the Assembly have a president and members" and nowhere mentions the "deputy president" whom Marković wants to urgently introduce into the committees in cooperation with part of the opposition.