Serbian Parliament Talks End Without Deal on Opposition Deputy Speakers

Representatives of the parliamentary groups elected on 25 October met at the National Assembly in Belgrade on Friday, 13 November, for consultations ahead of the new parliament's constitutive session on Tuesday, 17 November. The closed meeting lasted about an hour, according to Danas, and ended without agreement on whether the opposition will get any deputy speaker posts.

The Student List, which holds 140 of the 250 seats, sent two representatives. The Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia list, with 103 seats, was represented by Ana Brnabić and Milenko Jovanov of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Parties of national minorities, which hold the remaining seven seats, also took part, as did the assembly's secretary general, Srđan Smiljanić.

What the Student List proposed

In a statement published after the meeting, the Student List said the speaker, the number of deputy speakers and their names will be decided by majority vote at the session. It said it had not yet decided whether to offer some deputy speaker posts to other groups and would inform the public in time. Committee seats will be allocated in proportion to the size of each group, and committee chairs will be elected by majority vote within each committee.

The list also asked for the session to continue straight after MPs' mandates are confirmed, for handover records from the outgoing speaker and secretary general, and for a student delegation to be admitted to the gallery, since 17 November is International Students' Day. According to the statement, all groups agreed that voting will be public. The secretary general asked for the names of candidates by Monday.

SNS: opposition rights will shrink

Brnabić, the outgoing speaker, told reporters that nobody at the meeting asked United Serbia how many deputy speaker posts it wanted or which committees it would like to chair. She said that as speaker she had always asked the opposition first, and that this practice had now ended. Jovanov said the rights of the opposition would be reduced and objected to what he described as extra conditions for MPs who want to chair committees, which he said would be decided outside parliament. The Student List statement did not mention any such conditions.

Vučić said the Student List had missed a chance to show respect to the largest opposition group. The Student List, for its part, said the consultations should deal only with technical and organisational questions and not become a venue for political bargaining behind closed doors.

What happens next

On Tuesday the assembly will confirm the 250 mandates, MPs will take the oath and the speaker and deputy speakers will be elected. The constitution of parliament also starts the 90-day period for forming a new government.