Novi Sad Mayor Remains in Office after Surviving Vote on His Dismissal

Milan Djuric (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

Milan Djuric will continue to serve as Novi Sad mayor after the motion for his dismissal was backed by 25 city aldermen, while 48 were against.

During the vote, opposition aldermen fell out with their ruling colleagues, while police officers were stationed in the hall outside the city assembly building. 

During the sitting, several hundreds of citizens gathered outside the building, making noise by blowing the whistles and the vuvuzelas and beating the drums. At some point, the gathered citizens tried to enter the building while the sitting was in progress, causing some incidents as they were being stopped by the riot police. 

Democratic Party alderman Veljko Krstonosic said that the opposition had given up on its plan to block the City Assembly work as they had not been expecting incidents or violence which occurred on Dec. 3. 

He also said that citizens had been again arrested by officers in plainclothes, adding that, according to opposition information, at least three people had been taken in. 

After the sitting, Dina Vucinic, the Novi Sad City Assembly deputy speaker, addressed the reporters, saying that the opposition did what the ruling majority had been warning of, that is, they caused violence during the sitting and outside the assembly building. Vucinic declined to respond to several questions by reporters as to why opposition representatives had not taken part in vote counting.