The former president of the Stari Grad municipality and holder of the "Guardians of the Old Town" list, Marko Bastać, is a decisive factor in the formation of the government in this Belgrade municipality. However, it is still not certain whether Bastać will side with the government or the opposition. Who is Marko Bastać and how has his political career gone so far
The only Belgrade municipality in which the "Biramo" coalition is won more votes from the Serbian Progressive Party is Stari Grad, but it is not yet known who will form the government in this city municipality. The one on the scales this time will be Marko Bastać, the holder of the "Guardians of the Old Town" list, and it is still uncertain which side the former president of this Belgrade municipality will side with.
In the Old Town, the "Biram Stari Grad" coalition won 23 mandates, the "Aleksandar Vučić - Stari Grad Sutra" list won 21 council seats, while the "Guardians of the Old Town - Marko Bastać" list won 10 mandates. The lists of Dejan Žujović and the People's Party won one mandate each. 29 councilors are needed to form the government, so the "keys" of the Old Town are with Marko Baštać.
Co-president of the Green-Left Front party Radomir Lazovic believes that the government in Stari Grad will be formed by the opposition, because Bastać's voters, in his opinion, are opposition-oriented.
"I think that the people who voted for Marko Bastać did not vote for the SNS government to remain in this municipality, and I think that we should form a majority and that it should be one piece of good news in a sea of bad," said Lazović in Dnevnik Nova. Talks about the formation of the government are scheduled for Thursday, and Lazović says that they will start from how many votes they won in the recent local elections in that municipality.
"It is not about the positions that someone will occupy or not, how many votes someone won in the elections, and we will start our discussions from there." There is no need to talk about giving or not... There is no doubt that Bastać's voters are opposition-minded", answered Lazović when asked if they are ready to give Bastać the position of president of this municipality, bearing in mind that he had previously held that position.
"When we had a conversation when the negotiations started, he (Bastać) said that he wanted to form a government with us," he added.
Lazović explained for Danas that Marko Bastać asked that the negotiations with the opposition be finalized when the election process, deadlines for appeals and official results are completed.
However, when asked about the impression that Marko Bastać is still negotiating with the Serbian Progressive Party on the formation of the government, Radomir Lazović says that "everyone has the right to negotiate and talk with whoever they want."
Who is Marko Bastać?
The holder of the "Guardians of the Old Town" list returned to the political scene after a four-year break - and as a turning point in deciding the fate of this municipality in the next four years.
Marko Bastać was the president of the Stari Grad municipality from 2016 to 2020. In the elections in April 2016, he was the holder of the "Guardians of the Old Town" list of the Democratic Party. Then the DS won the largest number of mandates.
Bastać emerged from the Democratic Party. He was the president of the Stari Grad Democratic Youth Club for two terms, from 2006 to 2011. From 2007 to 2011, he served as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Municipal Committee of the Democratic Party of Stari Grad, and in 2011 he was elected chairman of the Municipal Committee, Insider writes.
He became known to the general public after the 2016 elections, when it was revealed that his wife, her sister, his sister and her husband, a relative and the mother of his godfather were on the list of the Democratic Party in the Municipality of Stari Grad, whose candidate he was. Soon there was a split with the DS, which initiated proceedings against him with claims that he issued party promissory notes without coverage.
In December of the same year, Bastać leaves the DS with the assessment that they are more concerned with themselves and that they do not have a platform to fight against the Serbian Progressive Party.
A short period in the CIS
Two years later, in 2018, he participated in the Belgrade elections with his group of citizens "What are you doing bro - Marko Bastać". On that occasion, he signed a statement that under no circumstances will he cooperate with SNS after the election and that he will stick to his list. For now, it is not clear whether he remains in the same position six years later.
Bastać then made official the cooperation with the former leader of the Democrats Dragan Đilas, who founded the Party of Freedom and Justice right in the premises of the Stari Grad Municipality in April 2019. Bastać immediately got the position of vice-president of the SSP, in which he did not stay long - just a little more than a year.
In June of the following year, the SSP announced that the municipal board of the SSP in the municipality of Stari Grad had been dissolved, and Bastać had been removed from the post of president of the party's Belgrade organization. The reason, as stated, lies in the fact that individual members, contrary to the party's decision to boycott the 2020 elections at all levels, were involved in electoral activities that resulted in the submission of the list "Keep the Old City - United Opposition".
In the short period while he was in the SSP, Bastać was often the target of tabloid reporting. Shortly after becoming the vice-president of this party, Bastać was accused by his godfather and former associate, Lazar Lešnjak, of torturing him and forcing him to commit corrupt acts. What followed was an avalanche of attacks on SNS members and officials. Bastać denied the accusations.
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