Ana Brnabić, outgoing Speaker of the National Assembly, tells NIN: We are not afraid of persecution; we will continue the political fight! |In light of the recently concluded elections and the forthcoming constitutional… Ceo tekst
Ana Brnabić, outgoing Speaker of the National Assembly, tells NIN: We are not afraid of persecution; we will continue the political fight!
|In light of the recently concluded elections and the forthcoming constitutional deadlines for forming a new convocation of the National Assembly, Serbia finds itself at its most politically sensitive moment since the changes of 10/05/2000 (the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević). After years of tension and a public focus on the rule of law and the fight against corruption, the election results have raised many questions about the country’s future direction. In an interview with NIN, the outgoing Speaker of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabić, speaks about the election results, the process of the peaceful transfer of power, the internal consolidation of the Serbian Progressive Party, and the challenges facing the judiciary, the media and the political system as a whole.
Let me begin, within the scope of your previous responsibilities as head of parliament, with the legal and constitutional deadlines. When can the convening and constitution of the new National Assembly realistically be expected? Claims and speculation have already emerged in public and from political opponents that your party could obstruct those processes and delay the handover of duties. Is there any truth in such allegations?
Absolutely not. They are nothing more than fabrications. You know, just as some people spent months saying and convincing the public that we would never recognise the election results, and that Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party would not hand over power without bloodshed and unrest, the opposite proved to be true in the end. On election night, at around 9:30 p.m., President Vučić, on the basis of a clear and representative sample, saw that there was no chance of us winning those elections. At a moment when no one else had yet come forward with official estimates, he addressed the citizens of Serbia and said openly: “Based on the sample I reviewed, we lost the election; I congratulate the winner.” So, everything he announced, he did exactly as he said.
So now as well, I am stating clearly and unequivocally: there is no obstruction on our part, nor will there be. We firmly believe that it is extremely important for the state institutions to be formed as soon as possible, so that the country can continue to live and work without disruption. In that sense, we will be fully constructive. We will file no objections or legal obstacles. We expect the Republic Electoral Commission to announce the final election results as soon as possible. From that moment, the constitutional 30-day deadline for constituting the National Assembly begins to run.
We will be there, we will take up our parliamentary mandates, and we will fight institutionally in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. We are extremely grateful for the trust of nearly 1.8 million citizens who voted for the “Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia” list.
We are grateful to them for giving us the opportunity to serve as members of parliament and to fight from the parliamentary benches for the Serbia as we see it: peaceful, stable, a Serbia of dialogue, strong institutions and economic strength.
Could you personally, or your party, have anticipated such an election outcome? It is clear that two days are not enough for any deep scientific or sociological analysis, but with this short distance in time, where do you believe you made the key mistakes as the government?
I will speak in my personal capacity, as Ana Brnabić, and not necessarily on behalf of the entire party, of which I remain a proud member and will continue to be. I will make just one brief digression: I must stress that, at this moment, the Serbian Progressive Party is practically the only political force defending parliamentary democracy in Serbia.
The classic political system as we know it has almost disappeared; all the other traditional parties have either been marginalised or vanished, while we still do not clearly know what the new student list represents in programmatic and ideological terms. So, in the National Assembly, our parliamentary group will be the only defender of parliamentary democracy as it is known in the civilised world. What happens next, we shall see.
As for the election results themselves, for me personally they came as an enormous surprise. I accept them fully. The will of the people is sacred to us. I understand that people voted against us, and it is entirely clear to me that we made mistakes. Anyone who works makes mistakes. After 14 years in power, it is entirely natural and psychologically understandable that people want a certain change.
However, what I still do not understand is the following: that in a country that is economically prosperous, where average salaries have exceeded 1,000 euros, where the average net salary is expected to reach 1,200 euros in December, where the minimum wage has risen to nearly 600 euros, and unemployment has fallen to a historic 7.2 per cent, where you see tangible progress at every turn, new railway lines and motorways — that in such a country people would vote for the opposing option without even knowing exactly what they were voting for. That is something I found impossible to predict.
I think many will come to regret this choice. I understand when people voted against the government in 2000, when the country was under complete isolation and people were out of work. But today, I believe responsible people should have voted for something. Citizens who supported the alternative did not vote for clear programmes and plans, because that list had none; often, they did not even know which names were on those lists. Nevertheless, that is the majority will in Serbia, and we respect that will unconditionally.
For more than two years now, Serbian society has been functioning under exceptionally strong political and social tensions. Everything escalated after the collapse of the canopy in Novi Sad, from which an intense political campaign developed focused on the issue of corruption. Do you believe you paid the political price precisely because of the perception that corruption is widespread in society?
Yes, certainly we did. I think that media and political campaign, which has in fact lasted for more than a decade, was directed primarily against Aleksandar Vučić and his family, and consequently against our entire party. That campaign was so severe and intense that it became almost impossible to fight it effectively.
On the other hand, I am proud of the fact that throughout all these years we never shut down media outlets. Quite the opposite — never before have so many media outlets with different political views and editorial concepts been launched in Serbia. In such an environment, it was impossible to respond to every falsehood that was circulated.
Just look at the lies spread in the run-up to the elections: it was repeatedly claimed that we would not recognise the results and that we would not hand over power peacefully. When it turned out that was not true, we heard no apology or acknowledgement of a mistaken assessment.
We paid the price for disinformation on social media, as well as for the continuous criminalisation and dehumanisation of Aleksandar Vučić and all of us. That strategy has clearly produced results. Today I saw a quotation on social media that vividly describes the situation.
People are feeding off the thesis: “We all know how much was stolen in the construction of motorways and railways, everything was three times more expensive, so now for the same money we will get three times more roads.” I am very interested to see how the new government will explain it to citizens when there are not three times more roads and railways — and there will not be, simply because those projects were not corrupt, but were carried out at real market and construction prices.
All of it was a carefully designed political construct. Clearly, we failed to respond to it adequately. We believed that citizens primarily saw tangible results and would not believe simple accusations, but it turned out that a huge number of people did believe those narratives.
Why did Serbia, during your term and in previous years, fail to establish a functional and independent judiciary, above all an effective and impartial prosecution service?
On our side, we did everything we could. It is interesting that all those who are today lecturing us on the rule of law voted during the election campaign or in parliament precisely against the constitutional amendments in the area of the judiciary.
As prime minister, I worked on those constitutional amendments for more than two years in direct cooperation with the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the Venice Commission, with a clear goal: the complete depoliticisation of the judiciary.
I sincerely believed that only an independent and depoliticised judiciary could protect us, on the day when we were no longer in power, from potential revenge and so-called “revolutionary justice”. Today, just 48 hours after the election, we are already witnessing signs of revolutionary terror.
Although the Constitution guarantees that judges elect judges and prosecutors elect prosecutors, those who won the election are already announcing the dissolution and replacement of members of the High Judicial Council and the High Prosecutorial Council, and the appointment of politically suitable personnel. That is not the rule of law; it is its direct negation.
We fought against such pressures even within our own party, because many were hesitant to grant so much autonomy to the judiciary. Nevertheless, most of us believed in building strong and independent institutions.
Do you personally feel that, in the area of the legal order, you still fell short as a government?
When we talk about law, the rule of law and media freedoms, I do not think we fell short in the way it is presented in public. Just look at the media landscape: all media outlets, including N1, Nova S and publications such as Vreme or Radar, were able to report freely and criticise the government without any bans. They were invited to all press conferences, and we patiently answered every question asked.
By contrast, look at what has happened in the past 24 to 48 hours. We have witnessed attacks on the newsroom of Informer, a lynching to which the institutions did not react adequately, as well as the vandalising of the newsroom of Večernje novosti. Aleksandar Vučić made a good point: in just one day, the new majority has shown a level of intolerance that we did not demonstrate throughout all 14 years in power.
If we fell short anywhere, it was in the fact that we sometimes tolerated violations of the law and the Constitution by certain judges and prosecutors who openly engaged in political activism. We did not want to dismiss them, so that it would not be interpreted as a political purge. In doing so, we may have made a concession at the expense of the consistent application of the law, out of a desire to show a high level of democratic tolerance.
Today, we are witnessing something entirely different, the opposite of any kind of tolerance. My phone is ringing literally every 30 seconds because our private phone numbers have been publicly posted on social media and so-called student portals. Since the results were announced, I have been facing the gravest threats and insults — messages saying that they will kill us, and the most appalling insults directed at my identity and background. So that is what this much-announced “revolutionary justice” looks like in practice.
What emotions and reactions does such an atmosphere provoke in you?
It gives me an absolute and unshakable determination to continue fighting for a normal, decent and orderly Serbia. What some people are now going through is something no one in any civilised country should be subjected to.
I am proud that the citizens of Serbia did not feel such revenge during the 14 years of our rule.
When I joined the government in 2016 at the invitation of Aleksandar Vučić, and then joined the Serbian Progressive Party in 2019, one of the main reasons was precisely that no one was removed in a vengeful manner. Incumbent officials and independent bodies, such as independent commissioners elected during the previous government — Rodoljub Šabić or Saša Janković — remained in their positions until the end of their mandates.
The staff we found in the state administration continued to work as normal. We did not carry out acts of revenge. I hope citizens will not have to watch the return of such a practice under the new circumstances.
This raises the question of the future action and consolidation of the Serbian Progressive Party. Many analysts point out that, during its long period in power, the party became alienated from the people, above all because of local officials and so-called “local power brokers” who governed their communities poorly. Are you planning a clear-out in your own ranks?
Our number one obligation at this moment is to stand by our people and their families, who are facing serious pressure. There are situations where, in certain places such as Gornji Milanovac, our members were not allowed to mark the party’s patron saint’s day, Sveta Petka (St Petka, a Serbian Orthodox religious observance), in peace. That is a precedent not seen in decades.
We certainly understand that mistakes were made, especially at the local level. Aleksandar Vučić has spoken about that openly and publicly on several occasions. There were individuals who behaved arrogantly, acted like local sheriffs, and lost touch with reality and with citizens’ needs.
There was a plan to replace 50 to 60 per cent of local officials, but clearly we did not manage to carry out all those changes in time, and the citizens punished us for that. I personally visited municipalities where people wanted to speak to us, to hear Aleksandar Vučić, but no longer wanted to see certain local municipal presidents or mayors. That is certainly part of the price we paid in these elections.
However, now is not the time for internal purges while our members are exposed to pressure. At present, the most important thing is to preserve stability, calm things down, and ensure safety for everyone. I do not understand why someone who has won an election behaves in this way. If this is how they behave in victory, how would they behave in defeat?
I always answer the phone and speak to those people who call and threaten. It is better for me to take those blows, because after 10 years in politics I am used to pressure, than for anyone to take it out on people who cannot endure it. I ask them: “You won, congratulations, so why, instead of celebrating, are you threatening and insulting people?” It is time for all of us to return to basic humanity and responsibility.
Another frequent criticism levelled at your government for years was the claim of pronounced partitocracy, that is, the widespread belief that it was impossible to get a job or be promoted in state bodies and the public sector without a party membership card. How do you respond to those accusations?
I strongly disagree with that thesis and I never will agree with it, because I know the facts say otherwise. Above all, we reduced unemployment in Serbia from a previous 26 per cent to 7.2 per cent. Anyone who wanted to work had the opportunity to find employment on the market.
The problem is that, in our society, there is still a habit and a desire to work in the public sector and state administration at all costs, rather than in the private economy. We appointed a young expert from the private sector, Milan Bosnić, to head the National Employment Service, and he is not a party member at all. He was brought in precisely to introduce new energy, so that the service would operate proactively like modern job centres around the world and offer jobs to people without any political conditioning.
Of course, there were those who wanted only a state job at any cost, and from that drew the conclusion that they needed a party membership card.
Aleksandar Vučić said clearly during the campaign that asking for a party membership card for employment constitutes a criminal offence and that those responsible should be held accountable.
Walk through state institutions today and you will see how many people are employed there who have never been members of our party. In my office and in the Assembly, many professionals worked without any party affiliation.
In a country where you have secured hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the private sector, stories about general dependence on a party card simply do not hold up. What is more, we had situations in which representatives of major foreign companies openly supported our opposition, which only shows the degree of freedom in which they operated.
Are you personally afraid of the announced lawsuits, investigations and possible political and legal persecution after the official handover of power?
There are already accusations from some quarters that documentation is being removed from institutions.
Stories about removing documentation are complete nonsense. In all those institutions, there are people working with different political beliefs, and it would be impossible to hide anything even if someone wanted to.
As for persecution, I am absolutely not afraid. I have done nothing illegal or wrong. Since entering politics, I have devoted my entire life to helping Serbia move forward. With my team, I introduced e-government, digitalised state services, built science and technology parks, the first State Data Centre, established infrastructure for the development of artificial intelligence, and worked tirelessly with businesspeople and citizens.
As Speaker of parliament, I respected the opposition to the fullest extent and enabled them to participate in the legislative process.
I know how President Vučić and I worked, and I know the results we have left behind. If this country has a genuine rule of law, we will be completely free and proud people. Do I expect politically motivated pressure and attempts at persecution? Yes, I am aware that there will be such attempts, but I have no fear at all. Let them come and examine everything that interests them; the truth always comes out in the end.
Thank you for this interview.
Thank you. I am especially grateful for your professionalism and for not cancelling this interview. I must note that you are among the few who kept to the scheduled conversation, given that many others cancelled my participation in conferences and appearances in programmes over the past two days because of pressure and fear. That says a great deal about the current atmosphere. Once again, thank you for the opportunity.
