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Šoškić: Serbia needs expert analysis and an anti-corruption drive, not pre-election handouts
🇷🇸 Serbia /Elections & Politics

Šoškić: Serbia needs expert analysis and an anti-corruption drive, not pre-election handouts

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Translated from Serbian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Economics professor Dejan Šoškić said a proposed one-off payment to citizens could be intended to win support before elections.
  • He argued that public spending should rely on expert analysis, public debate, legal safeguards and long-term planning rather than short-term political effects.
  • Šoškić questioned why higher-than-expected revenues would not be used to reduce Serbia’s public debt, which he said stood at about 42 billion euros.

A one-off payment to citizens, announced as part of Serbia’s revised budget, may be more about winning votes than addressing economic problems, economics professor Dejan Šoškić told N1.

Šoškić said the measure could be interpreted as an attempt by those in power to use taxpayers’ money to gain the support of specific voter groups. “It is a move that can be interpreted as a pre-election move by the ruling structure, which wants to gain the sympathy of certain groups of voters at the expense of taxpayers,” he said. “That is contrary to the basic principle of free voting: a vote is not bought, and there must be no pressure or blackmail.”

It is a move that can be interpreted as a pre-election move by the ruling structure, which wants to gain the sympathy of certain groups of voters at the expense of taxpayers. That is contrary to the basic principle of free voting: a vote is not bought, and there must be no pressure or blackmail.

— Dejan ŠoškićThe economics professor criticized the proposed one-off payment as a possible effort to influence voters.

He also questioned the government’s claim that the state had suddenly recorded “unusually high revenues.” If the budget had been properly planned, he asked, why had those revenues not been anticipated? And why, he asked, was the government not using them to reduce public debt?

Why are you not reducing the enormous public debt, which is now around 42 billion euros, when it was around 14.5 billion euros when this political structure began governing the state?

— Dejan ŠoškićHe questioned why additional state revenues would not be directed toward debt reduction.

Šoškić put the debt at around 42 billion euros, compared with about 14.5 billion euros when the current political structure took control of the state. He said any money for the payment would come from public funds, including taxes and value-added tax paid by citizens.

In his view, short-term handouts could create only a temporary impression of improvement. Decisions about public money, he said, should instead follow public debate, legislation and long-term budget planning, including lasting measures to improve the position of pensioners and socially vulnerable people.

Public funds cannot be managed as a consequence of the individual whim of someone who is currently in a position of power and decision-making.

— Dejan ŠoškićŠoškić argued that public spending should follow laws, public debate and long-term planning.
About this summary

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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