Photo: Tanjug/Sava Radovanović
from December 1, social assistance beneficiaries will be paid 10.000 dinars. Political pressures intensify in the pre-election period and are especially unscrupulous towards the citizens who are most dependent on state aid, stated in Crta.
As the elections are approaching, it seems that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is more and more generous in handing out taxpayers' money, even though according to the Constitution and the laws, this is not his jurisdiction.
After it was announced that on November 30, all pensioners will be paid 20 dinars of one-time aid, now Vučić announced that the financial aid will be given to social welfare beneficiaries.
As he said, from December 1st, 10.000 dinars will be paid to beneficiaries of social assistance.
Vučić told TV Prva that there are 170.000 beneficiaries of social assistance and announced that another 10.000 people will receive 51.000 dinars each, including "blind people, demented people and elderly people with incurable diseases", as well as that students will have a 20 percent discount. on train tickets and a 10 percent discount on plane tickets.
"Everyone will receive 10.000 dinars each." In the coming period, there will be these one-time payments," announced the president.
Read more Vučić's measures: Scaring and buying the poor and pensioners
The announcement of giving financial aid to the most vulnerable citizens, by accident or on purpose, comes after the Crta organization recently published research "Network of political pressures in centers for social work".
"Electoral corruption and clientelism do not bypass areas that at first glance seem less lucrative for political parties, such as the social protection system, in which, despite the scarce resources at their disposal, political parties find their interest." By extorting and "buying" the votes of the existentially most threatened citizens, political parties are abusing the situation in which half a million people in Serbia live in absolute poverty, the number of beneficiaries in the records of centers for social work is about 700 thousand and 176 thousand citizens receive social cash assistance - it was said at the conference for journalists, where the findings of the research were presented.
"Political pressures, which have been commonplace for many years, intensify in the pre-election period and are especially unscrupulous towards citizens who are most dependent on state aid," said Raša Nedeljkov, program director of Crta.
According to him, in an environment in which institutions are collapsing, and state and public resources are recklessly used for party interests, the most vulnerable categories of the population are treated as an obedient army of voters.
Through research by Crta, it was observed that clientelistic networks in centers for social work function in a hierarchical model of relationships, in which several key actors have specific roles.
"The leadership of the party usually exerts influence through the leadership of the municipality or city, which is further in charge of putting pressure on the directors of the centers or employees who are directly involved in the business of material grants and local services financed by the local self-government," said Marija Stefanović, manager of qualitative research in Crta. who, along with Danilo Vuković, a full professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade, is the author of the report.
"The director of the center, as the main link between the party and the institution, develops his own clientelistic network, puts pressure on employees and enables the abuse of public resources," Stefanović said.
Danilo Vuković points out that the research showed how ruthless the party networks are, which blackmail the most vulnerable citizens.
"They condition the receipt of social assistance with party engagement, voting or party activism, returning part of the financial assistance to the party, etc. However, they do not only blackmail the users, but also the employees in social protection", pointed out Professor Vuković.
BG/RTS
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