Three Men And A Blonde

"Anyway, they don't have a majority, if the bass player for the 'Lovehunters' is off in Holland recording for the month", says a very laid-back Nenad Canak, President of the Social Democratic League of Vojvodina, member of the Vojvodina coalition, in a conversation about the newest event which could be an episode (by no means the first) in a TV series "How the Coalition Zajedno is falling apart in Novi Sad". Vlada Jovanov, the bass player for the band 'Lovehunters', is a member of City Council for the Serbian Renewal Movement in Novi Sad where, because of the recent peaceful and timely transfer of power to the election winners, there was ample time for the relations within the Coalition Zajedno to deteriorate. The event in question is the decision by six members of SPO to abandon their party and to form, with members of the Democratic Reform Party of Vojvodina, of LSV and of the Democratic Party of Serbia, a new Party called "Novi Sad-SPO". Since up to that point it only had 36 members on a council of 70, Coalition Zajedno could not be helped now even if the 'Lovehunters' were to break up.

Whether by accident or not, the press conference where the creation of the new political formation of council members was announced took place on the morning of April 22, the same day on which the visit to Novi Sad of Vuk Draskovic, the President of SPO, had been previously scheduled for the evening. Initially conceived at part of the Draskovic pre-election campaign, the evening meeting of the SPO City Council dragged on into the night. There were threats of party sacking for those members who refused to retract their signatures from the decision to form a new club, even though their demands were received with consideration. The microphone was available only to those who made the retractions, of which there were three that evening. Ksenija Popovic, City Council Member for Culture, because of her refusal to retract her morning decision, was not allowed to enter the City Council Chambers where the meeting was being held. Branko Bjelajac, who was recently appointed Director of the Cultural Center of Novi Sad and a replacement of Mayor Mihajlo Svilar to the position of President of GO SPO, was fired from the party post because of his refusal to even enter the chambers. It was concluded that the Coalition in Novi Sad is "stronger and more stable than before", and that the City Council now has 34, or rather 35 Coalition members. This number was arrived by the "repatriation" of the

three members who retracted their signatures that evening, and by the announcement of the return of a fourth dissenter, Krsta Atlic.

With the coming of daylight, it became apparent that greater knowledge than that of mere addition is required for figuring out the political mathemathics in Novi Sad . "Last night I told Vuk that I would retract my signature when our demands are met", explained Nikola Boldovic, one of the dissenting members at the meeting of the new members Group, "which he promised in front of 200 people, and now we are waiting for him to fulfill his promise". Not only did all the six members stick to their positions, but the expansion of the group "Novi Sad-SPO" with the addition of four more members of Coalition Zajedno had been announced. "Three young men and a blond", explained the President of the Group, Dr. Stevan Vrbaski.

With all that, the reactions of the Democratic Party are dangerously low key. They continue to be optimistic in their view of the conclusion of this incident, and they are not getting too excited, at least not publicly, even when they are directly attacked. And that they are, as the demands after whose fulfillment the dissenting members are to return to the mother party include the reorganization of the City Council in which the Democrats are "overrepresented", and the assuming of control by City Council over municipal authority, as the "abandoning of election promises" had occured.

"Whenever we raised that question within the party, we were threatened with the disintegration of the Coalition, while the Democrats were carrying on business as usual outside the public eye. They took the key sectors, for instance, finance and the most profitable public enterprises, such as 'Trznica and Poslovni prostor", stated Branko Bjelajac, who is a key man among the dissenters, although not a Council member. On Monday, a holiday, the SPO City Council had hastened to acknowledge their demands in a statement in which it accused the Democratic Party for everything, repeating the demands of the "dissenters". The Democrats only responded by their spokesman Slobodan Vuksanovic calling on the SPO to move to another room and discuss the matter eye to eye, as has been prescribed by the Agreement of the Head Committee of the Coalition.

Since an agreement had been reached on proportional representation of the Coalition parties in all municipal government departments in February, the dissenters of SPO are also demanding for its institution in Novi Sad.

Their hands are tied in the council by other decrees of the agreement they are calling upon, while the motions of IO, to which they cannot but raise their hands, include more and more power for the Municipal Government, and less and less power for the City Council. The very crucial decisions on the allotment of city land for construction have become the occupation of IO. "Between democracy and efficiency, we had to choose efficiency", Caslav Popovic had in fact said.

SPO had broken to the side of its undisciplined members, judging by the latest announcement in which a demand is made from its coalition partner for the urgent reorganization of the Municipal Government, with the inclusion of the Coalition "Vojvodina" and the replacement of all directors of public enterprises. Of course they did not mention inner-party restructuring. If because of all that the ruling Novi Sad Coalition falls apart, this party could form, with the Coalition "Vojvodina", which at present has 17 City Council members, the newest municipal government. How wise is that, if we consider that the Socialists had in a way announced support for the new restructuring?

"We will support everything that is in the interest of Novi Sad and its citizens", stated Josip Cikos, the recently elected president of the Novi Sad branch of SPS and Director of the Institute for Cardiovascular Illness in Sremska Kamenica.

Certainly they would support that, because it would probably mean the complete disintegration of the Coalition Zajedno. The story has just begun, it seems, as knowledgeable observers had stated that the first signs of similar changes have been noticed in Vrsac and Pancevo.