"Come, it won't be on TV!"

One of the wittiest invitations to the March 9 rally in central Belgrade is: "Come, it won't be on TV!" The opposition lost everything, Studio B, live sessions, municipalities, and renounced the Serbian parliament and they're leaving Belgrade city hall.

Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) leader Vuk Draskovic and Democratic Party (DS) leader Zoran Djindjic stopped their war and are now politely agreeing and planning to appear together with the leader of Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS) Vesna Pesic on March 9. Djindjic and Draskovic will hold a joint rally in Kragujevac next week but they haven't drawn up any special political demands like they did for March 9, 1991.

Leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Vojislav Kostunica gave up the rally "of European Serbia versus the congress of Chinese Serbia" (Draskovic) because he wanted something fiercer that day, demonstrations for example.

MP in Serbian Parliament Bora Kuzmanovic (DS) handed back his mandate and explained in an open letter that "Djindjic's favorite thought that the people forget everything isn't true since it was clearer day by day that he was getting entangled in contradictions and abandoning the people he swore by, betraying his friends". Kuzmanovic transferred to the Democratic Centre (DC) where Dragoljub Micunovic (founder and former DS member) is announcing his political comeback. The Demotratic Centre was promoted on February 22 and is due to set up its bodies and elect a leadership in March.

In their letter of intent, the DC said they will be a political centre party which intends to force coalition governments and prevent both the left and right from ruling alone. Micunovic indicated he wants to see a centre political group formed which would include the SPO, GSS and added that the DC is consulting with both those parties. Vojvodina Reformist Democratic Party (RDSV) leader Dragoslav Petrovic said at the DC promotion that his party joined the DC but will clarify that status at the RDSV assembly. He expects the DC to become "on of the pillars of a wide election coalition".

SPS spokesman Ivica Dacic told Politika daily on February 25 that the coming SPS congress will bring personnel and organization renewal, introduce competition and honesty to remove internal weaknesses.

The SPS is promoting cooperation with European and world integration trends and claims it is the party capable of taking the country into the next century. SPS spokesman Ivica Dacic said that if SPS as the ruling party doesn't set that development goal none of the "numerous opposition parties and individuals whose extremist, primitive and backward policies can't take us into the next century but can only take us back". Dacic also stressed that the SPS welcomes and supports the strengthening of the left on the Yugoslav political scene and "in that sense supports and implements full cooperation with the Yugoslav United Left (JUL) in an effort to reinforce the forces of progress and development". He claimed that the next elections will see an even more stunning victory of the left since "elections aren't decided by the amount of lies and advertising but by the quality of the programme on offer and the people to vote for".

The Socialists got the support of most of the domestic public and international political community to end the war and turn Serbia towards Europe. The centralised economy and state run as a monopoly, which is where it was before Dayton with very little change. Nothing was done to revive the autonomy of institutions, on the contrary institutions of an open society were destroyed such as the media and the Soros Foundation. The SPS has appointed so many company directors to its party bodies that the only conclusion is that, despite their talk of a market, they intend to organize a state of party property.

Still, the Socialists will be forced into privatization.