Belgrade budget for the year 2026, adopted at the session City Assembly, according to the opinion of the expert public, is not developmental, but maintains the existing problems and deepens the indebtedness of the city.
Nikola Jovanovic iz Center for Local Self-Government warns in an interview for the holiday double issue of "Vremena", which is on newsstands from Thursday, December 25, that the City is entering the new year without a development strategy, with growing debts, reduced investments and the transfer of capital projects to the national level.
He marks the new budget as destructive rather than developmental.
"This kind of budget is an attempt to prolong the status quo, with which certain tycoons, companies close to the city government and a group of party soldiers who would never be able to have a job in the normal labor market are satisfied," says Jovanović.
As he adds, the citizens of Belgrade are dissatisfied because the essential problems are not being solved - the city is neglected, air pollution is never worse, a third of the citizens do not have sewerage, and there are no serious investments.
He also warns about new duties. Specifically, the Belgrade government will owe the citizens 4,46 billion dinars.
And what about social measures?
Jovanović points out that the problem is not social measures such as subsidized transportation and kindergartens, but the way they are financed - through the reduction of investments and the growth of corruption, with the favoring of private carriers and the collapse of GSP.
Jovanović expects that the coming year will be marked by changes.
"They will first happen in the republican elections, they will be brought by young people, students, who have restored people's faith that Serbia can be different. Changes will happen because the drive for self-preservation is still stronger than any populism, partisanship or particular interest. Changes, one way or another, will have to start next year," concludes Jovanović.
Read the entire interview with Nikola Jovanović in the New Year's magazine "Vremena", which is on newsstands from Thursday, December 25. It's here you can also subscribe to the print or digital edition.
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