The ruling party liked so much last year’s tried and tested idea of giving away money to the citizens that they decided to repeat the gesture. It has never occurred to anyone in the Parliament to count how much the state owed because of this help.
Although they still claim that the budget for 2021 was flawlessly planned, only four months after its adoption, the MPs supported the rebalance. They say that the economic policy is excellent, and that Serbia is less indebted than France, Spain or Greece.
Why rebalance? Nearly each one of the MPs repeated that all citizens of age would be twice paid 30 euros and that the retired would be also paid an additional 50 euros. Despite criticism voiced by the Fiscal Council, the state does its own maths.
“We want to show our citizens that the state is strong, stable, that we have money, that we stand by them in times of crisis and that we wish to help them with this, perhaps in someone’s opinion smaller, but certainly significant amount of money, that is important to mitigate the negative impact of coronavirus.”
Let’s imagine that someone asked how we brought in this money.
“Aleksandar Vučić’s politics has shown that no emergency situation can affect the stability of the Republic of Serbia.”
“The masterful conduct of the foreign policy of our President Aleksandar Vučić has resulted in today’s Serbia which has powerful and influential friends in the EU, as it has in Russia and China.”
“Thanks to the accountable politics handled by our President Aleksandar Vučić, the Republic of Serbia is now an economically stable country.”
“Thanks to the accountable politics handled by our President Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia is a country which is coping well in this fight, which is not easy at all.”
The non-parliamentary Party of Freedom and Justice issued a statement during the debate, asking why the state increased the public debt by another 3.5 billion euros with this rebalance. The Minister answered from the parliamentary rostrum.
“Is there anything you did for the citizens of Serbia that remained, or did you just filled up your pockets and Dragan Đilas’s pockets?” Well there is not. So spear us your lectures about borrowing policies.”
Nonetheless, he did not deny additional borrowings.
For the Open Parliament, Mirjana Nikolić.