The President of the Dosta je Bilo (DJB) movement, Sasa Radulovic, said yesterday that the Serbian Constitution was “seriously violated” when, following a joint decision by the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of Parliament, a state of emergency was introduced in the country to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Although the coronavirus epidemic is serious, Radulovic asked why a state of emergency is used when Serbia has a law for such cases, according to which the government and ministries have all the authority to implement the necessary measures to protect the population.
“We are now completely in a Constitution-free zone. Power is practically concentrated in the hands of one person and one person cannot stop the epidemic; only institutions that operate in accordance with the Constitution and the law can do so,” Radulovic said at a press conference in the Serbian Parliament.
He also underlined stressed that deputies should be present in parliament after the state of emergency was unconstitutionally introduced in Serbia.
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“The parliament can meet and if there is a danger of a further spread of the virus it is possible to test the MPs. The National Parliament was in session even in World War I. No other country has gone beyond the constitutional framework in the fight against the virus, while in Serbia, there is a flagrant violation of the Constitution,” said Radulovic.
Radulovic then urged the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and the Speaker of Parliament Maja Gojkovic to urgently answer the question of who and why decided that the parliament was unable to meet and why that reasoning was not part of the decision to declare the state of emergency.
He asked the Speaker of Parliament Maja Gojkovic whether she is aware that “the Ministry’s decision to ban public meetings cannot be above the Constitution, and cannot suspend the National Parliament and deprive it of the powers conferred on it by the Constitution”.
(Naslovi.net, Beta, 17.03.2020)
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