Dacic: SPS will run in elections independently, as before; coalition with SNS afterwards

Printskrin: Tanjug

Minister of Internal Affairs and President of the Socialist Party of Serbia, SNS, Ivica Dacic said on Monday that he did not make any new statement about the party's participation in elections, stating that the SPS only ever took part in parliamentary elections in a pre-election coalition with United Serbia and the Greens of Serbia, and that it wants to continue the coalition with the SNS (Serbian Progressive Party) after the elections.

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"It's one thing to go to elections, the way we've always done, and its another to decide that we will continue the coalition with the SNS and the talks after the elections, and thirdly, there is no cooperation with the 'blockaders', and there is no support for the 'blockaders', and anyone who does that, is doing it against the policies and interests of the SPS," Dacic said in response to a journalist who said that his statement that the SPS would go to elections independently "raised a lot of dust" and that party official Branko Ruzic was the first to "praise" that step.

Dacic reminded that the party held a meeting of the main board where the decision was made unanimously to participate in elections independently, as well as that the SPS never in the past participated in a coalition with anyone except United Serbia and the Greens of Serbia.

"In any case, Ruzic's plans are not behind it," he pointed out when asked to comment on Ruzic's statement, who said that SPS's independent participation in elections was a "good first step".

Dacic also said that Ruzic cannot speak on behalf of the SPS, as well as that he was not present at the said session of the main board of the party, and that is why those decisions were made unanimously.

"If someone who is a member of the leadership of the SPS speaks, and is saying something that is completely contrary to the decisions of the main board of the party, then I understand that the other side thinks this is the position of the SPS. That's not the position of the SPS. And that is why, either the decisions of the party bodies will be respected, or we should abolish our party. Because the party cannot be a society from where everyone presents their individual opinion. Everyone must respect the decisions of the party bodies," said Dacic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)