Parliament of Serbia
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The unicameral parliament of Serbia is known as the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Народна скупштина Републике Србије / Narodna skupština Republike Srbije). The current Speaker of the National Assembly is Predrag Marković (G17 Plus).
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[edit] Building
The Parliament building is in the city centre of Belgrade, on the Nikola Pašić Square, in front of Pioneer's park. The building is shown on the five thousand Serbian dinar note. Parliament of Serbia moved into this building on July 23, 2006 after the independence was regained.
Prior to becoming the Parliament of Serbia, it served as the seat of parliament for Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia (DFY, FPRY, SFRY and FRY) and Serbia and Montenegro.
Construction on the building started in 1907, with the cornerstone being laid by King Peter I. The building was based on a design made by Konstantin Jovanović in 1891; a variant of that design made by Jovan Ilkić, which won a competition in 1901. World War I delayed construction, and the original plans to the building were lost. Reconstruction of the plans were made by Jovan's son Pavle. The interior was designed by Nikolaj Krasnov. It was designed in the manner of academic traditionalism.
A sculpture by Toma Rosandić, Igrali se konji vrani (Play of Black Horses), was placed in front of the building in 1939.
[edit] Forthcoming election
[edit] Parliamentary lists and parties
[edit] Minority government members
- Democratic Party of Serbia list - 53
- Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) - 52
- Serbian Liberal Party (SLS) - 1
- New Serbia and independent members 9+9 list - 17
- New Serbia (NS) - 9
- Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) - 8
[edit] Minority government backers
- Socialist Party of Serbia list - 22
- Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) - 22
- G17 Plus list - 31
- G17 Plus (G17+) - 31
- Democratic Party - Boris Tadić list - 34
- Democratic Party (DS) - 32
- Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS) - 1
- Social Democratic Union (SDU) - 1
[edit] Opposition lists
- Serbian Radical Party list - 80
- Serbian Radical Party (SRS) - 80
[edit] No list
- Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) - 4
- Social Democratic Party (SDP) - 3
- Serbian Radical Party (SRS) - 1
- Social Liberal Party of Sanjak (SLPS) - 1
- Bosniac Democratic Party of Sanjak (BDSS) - 1
- Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS) - 1
- non-aligned - 2
[edit] Notes
- Shortly after the election, Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) and People's Democratic Party (NDS), both already on DSS list, merged completely into Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), bumping DSS parliamentary club up to 52 MPs.
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- November 2004 - Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) MP Dragisa Djokovic becomes the first in the long line of turncoats as he switches allegiance from DSS to DS. DSS reacts by taking away his MP status, invoking the contract every one of its MPs, including Djokovic, signed before starting on the job. DSS claims that contract clearly states the party has the right to replace its MPs if they ever decide to leave its ranks. Parliamentary Administrative Commission (Administrativni odbor) agrees. Djokovic and DS do not, and take the issue to Constitutional Court of Serbia and Supreme Court of Serbia.[1] In February 2005, Constitutional Court rejects their motion, allowing the Administrative Commission's decision to stand.[2] The Supreme Court has still not ruled on the issue.
- February 2005 - Four Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) MPs, Sanja Cekovic, Stanisa Stanarevic, Milan Ninic and Blagica Kostic leave the, up to that point 22-MP strong, SPO-NS parliamentary club with the intention of forming their own. Since they are 1 MP short they try to persuade either an SPO or an NS MP to join in. When no one takes the offer, the four decide to continue attached to no club. Publicly, they cite lack of commitment to original SPO program ideas by other SPO MPs as their reason for leaving.[3] This drops the SPO-NS club to 18 MPs (9 from SPO, 9 from NS).
- May 2005 - The nine remaining Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) MPs leave the party and enter the newly-formed Serbian Democratic Renewal Movement (SDPO). The nine continue to support the government. They also continue as SPO MPs for parliamentary purposes even though they now belonged to a whole new party. The nine (Vojislav Mihailović, Radojle Bukvić, Nikola Jovanović, Radoslav Jović, Tomislav Kitanović, Bogoljub Pejcić, Veroljub Stevanović, Slobodan Zivuckin, and Radovan Teodorović) then rename their club with 9 New Serbia (NS) MPs into 9+9 parliamentary club.
- May 2005 - Serbian Radical Party (SRS) MP Zivadin Lekic leaves the party and joins Karic's PSS. For official parliamentary purposes he continues as an independent MP, but in essence he becomes Karic's MP even though tycoon and his party didn't take part in elections. This aisle crossing drops SRS club down to 81.[4] Few days later, Lekic states he left the SRS because it didn't sufficiently defend their incarcerated president Vojislav Seselj, but SRS hit back with accusations he was bought off by Bogoljub Karic.
- August 2005 - After Social Democratic Party (SDP) was expelled from the government following their MPs' refusal to support the proposed pension and oil industry laws which were the sticking point in Serbia's relationship with the IMF, two of their MPs Ljilja Nestorovic and Meho Omerovic stop supporting the government in the parliament. Their third MP Slobodan Lalovic (also the Minister of Labour) continues to support the government and gets to keep his post.
- September 2005 - Shortly after the SDP episode, ruling coalition led by Koštunica moves to restore its parliamentary support cushion by offering deputy minister posts to 2 Sandžak MPs who were elected on the Democratic Party (DS) list (Esad Dzudzevic and Bajram Omeragic) in return for their support in future voting. The two take the offer but decline the governmental posts, passing them off to different Sandžak people, after DS protests. But DS is still unhappy and wants their MP status revoked too. After Assembly's Administrative Commission (Administrativni odbor) rules in favour of the two staying, DS demonstratively leaves the parliament and takes their case before Constitutional Court of Serbia, Supreme Court of Serbia, as well as Serbia-Montenegro's Court for protection of electoral law.[5]
- November 2005 - On the eve of the 2006 budget vote, G17 Plus leadership strips two of its MPs, Sovranije Conjagic and Vesna Lalic-Dragovic, of their status using the rights it has within inter-party contract signed by all their MPs that says their release can be invoked at any time the party sees fit. The reason G17 Plus did it in this case is the intention of the two said MPs to vote against the proposed budget. Couple of days later they are replaced even though they applied for independent MP status in the meantime. Assembly's Administrative Commission (Administrativni odbor) and Serbia's Electoral Commission decide to verify their replacement and this issue is now also before courts.
- December 2005 - Serbian National Assembly sees formation of a new parliamentary club that opposes the government - For European Serbia. It consists of 5 MPs with a rich parliamentary history of aisle-crossing and side-switching:
- Ljilja Nestorovic and Meho Omerovic from SDP, who used to support the government until August 2005 and whose party since being expelled from the ruling coalition has entered a coalition with Karic's PSS
- Zivadin Lekic, former SRS member-MP and current independent MP, but PSS party member
- Slobodan Zivuckin who first split from SPO to enter SDPO in May 2005 now also left SDPO to become an independent. As far as parliamentary club membership goes, before joining this club he used to be in SPO-NS club, as well as its re-engineered version 9+9
- Blagica Kostic, one of the four SPO MPs who split from SPO-NS club in February 2005
- Nestorovic, Omerovic and Lekic already opposed the government while Zivuckin and Kostic supported it, but do not anymore. This drops the number of MPs who support the government to 130 out of 250. It also drops the 9+9 club from 18 to 17 MPs.
- December 26, 2005 - DSS MP Djordje Cukvas, formally resigns, handing back his MP mandate because he disagrees with personnel changes in his local DSS committee in Zvezdara. DSS delegates 26-year-old Borko Ilic to replace him as the MP.
- Late March 2006 - Slobodan Zivuckin, another MP with a long history of switching sides does so once again. This time he decides to leave the For European Serbia parliamentary club - dropping it under 5 members and making it disappear in the process. He now again supports the government while staying an independent MP. This increases the number of MPs that support the government to 131.
