The proposed amendments to the Law on the Serbian Armed Forces, which stipulate that the Chief of the General Staff will command the Army of Serbia “in accordance with the decisions of the President of the Republic,” represent a “dangerous consolidation of the autocracy of President Aleksandar Vučić” and a new humiliation for both the army and the state, said the President of the Democratic Party (DS), Srđan Milivojević.
In a written statement, Milivojević argued that these changes amount to a mockery of Serbia’s libertarian tradition and the values of the generations that built the country’s army. He called on all members of parliament to walk out of the “fake parliamentary debates” and stop giving legitimacy to the current composition of the National Assembly.
“DS does not participate in the staged work of the National Assembly — a compromised institution whose sole purpose is to legitimize the rule of the mafia and which has turned into a covered extension of ‘Ćaciland’,” Milivojević stated. He urged all MPs who are not under the direct control of the regime’s mafia to stop legitimizing dangerous decisions of this kind and to unconditionally support the students’ list, which he described as the only meaningful and effective way to challenge Vučić’s rule.
The proposed amendments, submitted to the Serbian parliament yesterday, change Article 19 of the law by replacing the current wording — “the Chief of the General Staff and the officers of the Serbian Army command and manage the Army of Serbia in accordance with the law and the command acts of superiors” — with the new formulation:
“the Chief of the General Staff commands the army in accordance with the law and the decisions of the President of Serbia.”
Representatives of the opposition have strongly criticized the proposal.
