Program or functions: What slows down the negotiations on the formation of the government in the Old Town

After the elections on June 2, the only uncertain municipality in Belgrade remained the municipality of Stari grad, in which the list of the coalition "Biram Stari grad" could form the government with the help of the list Marko Bastać, "Guardians of the Old Town", which achieved the third best result in the territory of this municipality.

Since the publication of the results, negotiations between the two parties have been ongoing, although it is difficult to conclude from the public appearances of the holders of these lists what they are actually arguing about.

In the past few weeks, two opposition lists entered the the process of negotiating the formation of the government. After several meetings, Radomir Lazović, the leader of the Biramo Stari grad list, gave Marko Bastać a deadline of Monday, June 17, to declare with whom he will form the government in the Old City.

Bastać, as he announced earlier, broke the deadline, although today he confirmed for the first time that he is only negotiating with the opposition on the formation of the government, writes Today.

Where does the problem lie?

Based on the statements of these two opposition leaders, it can be concluded that they are negotiating development programs and the further functioning of the municipality of Stari Grad, but it is not clear why the dispute arose, whether it is based on political or ideological differences or on something else. Therefore, the question arises where the problem could lie.

Political analyst Đorđe Vukadinović tells Danas that based on the statements of Lazović and Bastać during the negotiations, it can be concluded that the main topic was actually the distribution of functions, and not politics as both of them presented it.

"I think, from the performance before today's address by Lazović, that there is nothing to do with that agreement." The topic of the meeting was, of course, the functions, and the talk about politics is just a fig leaf that hides the essence, which is actually the division of power," says Vukadinović.

He recalls that after the first meeting with Bastać, Lazović said that the topic was the results achieved, which, he says, is completely logical because the one who is "the one on the scale", and in this case Bastać, is in a position to ask for more.

"Bastać probably wants the position of the mayor of the municipality or a dominant role in the division of power and departments, and that is logical. The one who is a tas on the scale is in a position to ask for it," he points out.

It is expected that Bastać will want to take advantage of the opportunity

Vukadinović reminds that prioritizing the distribution of functions over politics in such negotiations is a principle and that it is something that happens at higher levels where politics should carry more weight than at the municipal level.

He points out that because of this, it would be comical to assume that the "Biram Stari Grad" coalition expected that Bastać would not take advantage of his opportunity, because this would not be the case even if there was a normal political climate in Serbia, and not "simply extended one-partyism in the name of the SNS". which represents an additional aggravating factor because they have power at all levels.

Vukadinović says that it seems to him that Lazović himself did not expect Bastać's answer, but that he wanted to "buy time" for the announcement of the results of the official loss in all Belgrade municipalities, despite announcements that victory is certain in at least four municipalities.

"It's as if they have prolonged all this a bit with these negotiations in order to postpone facing the fact that despite the announcements, they will not have any municipalities," adds the analyst.

The situation suits both of them

He says that it can be assumed that for Baštać, the proportional distribution of functions was inadmissible and that such expectations were not realistic.

"I think that, actually, it suits both sides that this is prolonged." Let the situation around the elections cool down a bit - concludes Vukadinović.

At the press conference on Tuesday, Lazović stated that Bastać had broken the deadline (Monday) and that
his coalition will no longer initiate talks with the "Guardians of the Old Town" newspaper.

"We do not dispute the right of the 'Guardians of the Old Town' to negotiate with whoever they want, including the progressives, but we believe that this is a kind of manipulation of the will of the voters, given that the citizens of the Old Town voted for a change of government," said Lazović.

After this conference, Bastać responded by saying that he is in negotiations only with the opposition and that he will receive his definitive answer by the end of this week.

Who is Marko Bastać?

Bastać, born in 1984, was a youth member of the Democratic Party for a long time and then the president of the municipal board. Thus, in 2016, leading the DS list, he also became the president of the municipality.

He became known to the general public after the election, when it was revealed that Bastać's wife, her sister, his sister and her husband, a cousin and the mother of his godfather were on the DS list in the Stari Grad Municipality, which he was the holder of.

Soon there was a split with the DS, which initiated proceedings against him with claims that he issued party promissory notes without coverage.

Five years ago, in a big interview for "Vreme", he vowed to boycott, which he later broke, and he spoke of Vučić and especially Vesić as thugs who rule over "fear and darkness".