MPs of ZLF for "Vreme": We threw red smoke bombs

"We did not throw any shock bombs, which Ana Brnabić mentions, nor any flares, we threw smoke bombs, those are the red ones that can be seen in the videos," Biljana Đorđević, MP of the Green-Left Front, told Vreme.

Although they are called bombs, they only color the space, she adds and claims that they cannot hurt anyone.

"Smoke bombs were thrown towards the Government of Serbia, but we did not target anyone, no one was hit," she explains. "Brnabić mentions that SNS MPs were hit, only if they threw something, she seems to make up the text on the spot." I hope that the female colleagues who were injured will be fine, and we have already seen on the video that one of them was actually hit with a bottle by Žika Gojković, who is a member of the SNS."

According to unofficial information, smoke bombs were also brought by members of the new DSS.

Đorđević says that her coalition decided to obstruct the work of the Assembly because the government that has fallen cannot propose laws, that it does not have the legitimacy to send them to the procedure.

"We submitted a request to remove all laws from the agenda and to discuss only the reduction of school fees and the resignation of the Government, but the government has made a farce out of everything," she adds.

Đorđević reminds that the ZLF supports the general strike on March 7, as well as the concept of a transitional government, which they think is the only solution at a time of crisis, in order to create the conditions for fair elections. The MP thinks that the whole society should stand behind that request.

"Where was the Prosecutor's Office when the police attacked us"

For quick reaction Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, which "warned MPs that immunity from criminal prosecution does not protect them from prosecution for crimes committed in accordance with the Constitution and laws of Serbia", Biljana Đorđević says that MPs from her group do not rely on immunity.

"It is interesting how they reacted quickly now, and did not come forward to comment when the police attacked us in Novi Sad because we were trying to send a message that political prisoners should be released." At that time, our parliamentary immunity was not mentioned," she adds.

ZLF MP and professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences Đorđe Pavićević told "Vreme" that they were ready to talk with the government in resignation only about the Law on Higher Education and student demands, and that among the laws that the government is trying to adopt before the government falls, there are a large number of bad solutions.

Among them, he mentions the amendment of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, which the ruling majority wanted to amend in order to make the procedure longer and more difficult due to the alleged overload of the institution. There are also three laws on primary and secondary education, in which the government's idea was to give special religious bodies the opportunity to dismiss religious teachers they don't like.

Also on the agenda was the new postponement of the state graduation for 2028, and Pavićević says that this postponement is shameful in a situation where teachers' salaries are being taken away.

He describes the current situation in the Parliament as ridiculous, because SNS MPs are speaking, and people around them are interrupting them.

"The progressives are sitting sprinkled with white powder, they want to push the session to the end at any cost," explains Pavićević.

What next

He also says that the limit has been crossed with this session of the Assembly, but that he cannot talk about the further concrete steps of his coalition, because the government uses the news about it to obstruct new ideas, but he is sure that "this time there will be no blocking of the elections, but the elections will not be held".