Vranes remains, PES leaves power? Agreement reached by part of the majority in Pljevlja on the budget

The budget of the Municipality of Pljevlja will most likely be adopted at the local parliament session scheduled for Monday, because after today's meeting of coalition partners, it can be concluded that there is a majority for its adoption.

However, the final outcome will depend on whether the budget proposer, the Mayor of the Municipality, Dario Vranes, by the end of the debate, accept and include the demands and proposals of the parties that make up the government, which, according to unofficial information, Vijesti promised at the meeting today.

The debate scheduled for Monday will show whether the compromises reached will be sufficient to adopt the budget and stabilize the political situation in Pljevlja.

Only the Europe Now Movement (PES) stuck to its previously stated position that the dismissal of Vranes is a condition for supporting the budget, saying that without a change at the head of the Municipality, they will not vote for the most important financial document.

The parliamentary majority has 23 councilors out of 34 councilor seats in the local parliament, so the budget could be adopted even without the votes of three PES councilors.

Four Democratic councilors are likely to support the budget if their proposals are accepted. According to unofficial information, the party has proposed a series of projects worth around half a million euros.

At the meeting, it was agreed that, considering that according to the Rules of Procedure, amendments must be submitted at least three days in advance, the requests of the coalition partners should not be formally submitted as amendments, but that the Mayor, as the proposer, should incorporate them directly into the budget text, which the Rules of Procedure allow until the conclusion of the debate.

The budget is also expected to be supported by several councilors from the New Serbian Democracy party, due to whose absence the municipal assembly session was previously postponed. One of Vijesti's sources said that the party's president Andrija Mandic asked all councilors to support the budget. Vranes conveyed this to the participants of the meeting yesterday at the beginning of the session, saying that he had heard from Mandic and that he had received information from him that all ten Nova councilors would vote for the budget.

Some of Nova's councilors also asked Vraneš to accept their proposals in the budget, which he did at a meeting with the councilors' club the day before.

There were no proposals from the Democratic People's Party (DNP), the Movement for Pljevlja, and independent councilors, but they said they would support the proposed budget.

Unlike the other partners, the Europe Now Movement (PES) maintained its position that Vranes' dismissal was a condition for the budget vote. After the coalition partners' meeting, the party told Vijesti that the talks had not brought any substantial progress.

"We expected more concrete steps towards solving the problem and stabilizing the situation for the benefit of the citizens. Our suggestions did not meet with a positive response," said the head of the PES councilors' club. Radoman Andesilić.

If the budget is adopted in the proposed form and without changes at the municipal level, they see no room for further political action within the current government.

"We are a newly formed party and we stand by our words. It is not politically correct to remain part of the government and not support a key document," Andesilić said.

"If one man is more important than the parliamentary majority, then that is a clear message," the president of the PES Municipal Board told Vijesti, adding that the final decision on a possible exit from power will be made by the party's bodies.