Novi Sad Assembly Session Delayed Amidst Opposition-Government Accusations on Parks, Schools

A session of the Novi Sad City Assembly was significantly delayed, nearly 50 minutes, due to mutual accusations between the opposition and the ruling majority. The delay, which has become a recurring practice in recent sessions, highlighted communication and organizational issues between the two political factions.

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The task of the opposition is precisely to submit initiatives, and the fact that the ruling party rejects their proposals actually speaks of that false pluralism and that false democracy that is practiced, as they said, in the City Assembly of Novi Sad.

The opposition initiated the discussion, presenting an initiative for a Declaration on the Protection of the Danube River's Coastal Area, which Assembly President Dina Vučinić reportedly rejected. The opposition argued that the ruling party's consistent rejection of such initiatives, despite the opposition's frequent proposals, demonstrates a "false pluralism" and "false democracy" within the city assembly.

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Only two out of 11 directions are filled in total.

Furthermore, the opposition drew attention to the declining state of the Jovan Jovanović Zmaj gymnasium, once a prestigious institution in Novi Sad. They noted that only two out of eleven available programs are currently filled, attributing this to the alleged "collapse" of the school. The opposition urged the mayor and the assembly to address the gymnasium's issues, even if educational institutions fall outside their formal jurisdiction.

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I asked the mayor what is happening with the new park near Spens, why the prices are exaggerated, as the opposition claims, why the smart bench applications do not work, why there is no shade in the park itself.

In response, Novi Sad Mayor Žarko Mićin addressed concerns about a new park near Spens, which opened in May after three years of construction. The opposition had criticized the park's perceived inflated costs and non-functional smart benches, as well as a lack of shade. Mićin stated that the park's pricing was determined by the designers, not the city or the province, and that the park's planning began under a previous mayor. He defended the park as a positive development, regardless of when its planning commenced.

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He said that he did not create those prices, that neither the city nor the province formed the prices, but the designers.