Movement of Socialists proposes binding referendum on Serbia's EU path

BELGRADE - In a statement released after a session of its head committee, the Movement of Socialists proposed an urgent reshuffle of the Serbian government, the passage of a law granting Serbian citizenship to all Serbs in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, as well as a binding referendum on the continuation of Serbia's EU path.

It said the session had addressed the political situation in the country, the results of Sunday's local elections in ten self-government units, as well as a "continued coloured revolution."

It said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the ruling Serbian Progressive Party had won a major victory in the elections, but that the contribution of coalition partners and the Government of Serbia "should have been greater and in line with the posts occupied by the coalition's leaders."

The Movement of Socialists also noted that, after October 5, 2000, EU membership had been declared a strategic objective and elevated to the "level of a dogma."

In a bid to get closer to Brussels, Serbia has made numerous concessions, changed its legislation and faced political pressure, the party added.

"Under pressure from the EU, we have imposed sanctions on Belarus and changed our Constitution, putting the judiciary in the hands of foreigners, and we are still apprehensive about when the EU will punish us because we do not recognise the so-called Kosovo and because we are not imposing sanctions on Russia," it said, adding that the coloured revolution was a process clearly "initiated, guided, maintained and funded by the European Union."

"In spite of everything we have gone through, no one has ever asked the people of Serbia what they think about the EU and whether all those, often irreversible, concessions are worth an entry to the EU, where a veto-wielding Croatia awaits us," the Movement of Socialists also said.

It called on its partners in the ruling coalition to use their "undisputed majority" in the parliament to immediately call a binding referendum on the continuation of Serbia's EU path.