http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2009/02/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-2162009.html#9870Belgrade, 13 Feb. (AKI) - Serbia’s northern Vojvodina province has triggered a heated national debate by demanding more regional autonomy, which opposition and some members of the ruling coalition fear is a bid for future separatism.
Of Serbia’s 7.5 million population, some two million live in the province of Vojvodina, which already enjoys a degree of autonomy, including local government and a parliament with limited competences.
But local parliament recently adopted a new statute for the province, which provides for more legislative powers, financial independence, the right to conclude international agreements and to have its own diplomatic missions abroad.
About one half of Vojvodina's population are Serbs, while the rest is made up of more than 20 other ethnic groups, including 150,000 Hungarians. Minorities have their own media, schools and even a university in the Hungarian language.
However, local politicians, including some Serbs, have been calling for more political and financial independence from Belgrade and their demands have been defined in the new statute which still has to be approved by the Serbian parliament in Belgrade.
The sensitive issue has triggered a stormy debate, because Serbia is still fighting a diplomatic battle to retain control over their former southern province of Kosovo, whose majority ethnic Albanians declared independence a year ago.
The new statute enjoys the support of pro-European president Boris Tadic and his Democratic Party, which has a strong electoral base in Vojvodina.
However, opposition politicians, including former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, have warned that the new statute was a first step towards separatism and further disintegration of the country.
Kostunica said the statute was “anti constitutional” and called on MPs to “pass the test of patriotism” and reject the statute in the parliament.
He further accused Tadic’s ruling coalition of “deliberately undermining the country’s constitutional order and Serbia itself”.
But Ivica Dacic, whose Socialist Party of Serbia is a member of the ruling coalition, said his deputies would vote against the statute. “The SPS is not against Vojvodina's autonomy, but is against the creation of another state in Serbia,” he said.
On the other hand, Balint Pastor the leader of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, said his party would quit the ruling coalition if the statute was killed in parliament.
A similar position was taken by Nenad Canak, a Serb, whose League of Vojvodina Social Democrats has spearheaded the drive for more autonomy.
The situation was further complicated by the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who wrote to Tadic in order to kill the statute in parliament because it was “destructive for Serbia”.
The call provoked a wave of criticism from the statute supporters and non-governmental organisations, pointing out that the Church was separated from the state and should not interfere in political affairs.
As the debate has become more heated, Tadic has said that same parts of the statute might be revaluated, but its supporters vowed not to consent to any changes.
Topic: Serbia’s Vojvodina Autonomy demand sparks separatism fears (Read 13510 times)