Srdanovic: Ministers Named Only After Final Results
Student List front-runner tells Nova.rs the first act of government is the rule of law, and that destroying documents will not hide the traces.
Ilija Srdanovic, the top candidate on the Student List, said in an interview with Nova.rs, published on November 2 at 8:04 a.m., that the new government’s first step will be to establish the rule of law, and that he will not name a prime minister or ministers until the Republic Election Commission declares final results. The interview was conducted by Ana Markovic, and Tanjug carried the part about forming the government.
When will the prime minister and ministers be known?
The interview took place while the country waits for results to be certified after the repeat vote at 53 polling stations. Nova.rs reports that the repeat vote was scheduled for Sunday, November 1, which is why government formation is on hold. Srdanovic argues that the repeat voting cannot change the distribution of seats, but says certification is needed for legitimacy:
“Now we are waiting for the repeat vote at more than 50 polling stations to pass. They will not be able to affect the final result in terms of changing the number of seats, but for legitimacy it is necessary for the republic election commission to declare them in full.”
Only then, he says, does the countdown begin. “After that we practically start the stopwatch, which will count down the days to the formation of the new Government,” Srdanovic said. On names he was clear: “It is still too early to speculate about the name of the new prime minister and the names of the ministers.” He added that the list has several qualified candidates for those posts.
The government’s first steps, in his words, concern the rule of law and taking over the most important levers of management in the executive branch. “Our first step when we form the Government will be to establish the rule of law,” he said.
What is his message to those destroying documents?
The journalist asked him about people in institutions who, it is claimed, are destroying evidence of criminal offenses these days. Srdanovic answered conditionally, “if anything like that has been happening,” and the published text does not say which institutions he means. He warned that this is a criminal offense and that anyone who encourages, carries out or covers it up will be prosecuted as an accomplice.
He made the technical argument like this: “Simply burning paper is not enough to hide all the traces.” Data in electronic form, he claims, can be recovered. “With IT forensic procedures it is easy to reach the information they tried to hide,” he said, and he called such an attempt at intimidation laughable and theatrical. He urged honest employees in institutions to prevent such actions, and if they physically cannot, to report them to the competent authorities.
Who will lead the arrests that follow?
Asked about announcements of new arrests, Srdanovic said prosecutors will lead them: “All the arrests that follow will be carried out in accordance with the law.” Proceedings will, he said, be opened wherever there is evidence of criminal offenses, whether in politics, business or the public sector. As an example of accountability he cited the owner of the Jovina Gimnazija school, who, according to him, is now in detention.
Telekom, Informer and Karovic’s claims
Nova.rs reminded Srdanovic of claims by Nemanja Karovic, a candidate on the same list, who said earlier on RTS that Telekom Srbija paid Informer between 500,000 and 700,000 euros a month, and that an attempt was made to take a billion dinars out of the Postal Savings Bank. Srdanovic did not repeat those figures himself, but said: “We absolutely stand behind everything my colleague Karovic has put forward.” He announced that spending budget money on such newsrooms will not be allowed. We found no response from Telekom Srbija or Informer to Karovic’s allegations as of publication.
We have already followed the Student List’s position on public media: we reported that the list does not propose a management board or a director for RTS.
What does he say about media freedom?
The last question concerned the ultimatums from the new owners to Nova’s journalists, the announced closure of the Nova paper and the dismissal of freelance contributors at the weekly Radar. Srdanovic answered in general terms: “Media freedoms are a fundamental human right and something we stand for.” He did not address the specific cases, and concluded that nobody may interfere with editorial policy: “Nobody may interfere in the editorial policy of a publishing house.”
