Former Serbia President and also the DS leader Boris Tadic says for Blic that statement by Prime Minister Ivica Dacic that ‘ban of the Pride Parade is a victory and not defeat of the State' is bizarre.
Last time it was not victory either but serious security assessment that followed after all attempts to make possible the parade is held. I said this time, too that everything should have been done to make it possible that the parade takes place and not to do everything leading to its cancellation', Tadic says in his statement for our daily.
At the same time the former Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic says to be proud that the gay parade was held during his mandate.
‘On the other hand the one that was cancelled last year was not banned as this year's since we offered another location for security reasons that the organizers did not accept. This is explicit ban. That is not popular, political parties exercise populism and that is how they function. Today I would probably offer another location because of the situation which seems to me to be worse than the last year', Cvetkovic says for Blic.
As organizers announced yesterday the Pride Parade shall be held in Belgrade but ‘within walls', in Belgrade Media Center. The organizers shall file again a complaint to this year's decision on ban of the Pride Parade, but shall also insist on implementation of the court ruling by the Constitutional Court of Serbia by which ban of the Pride in 2009 was ruled unconstitutional.
Maja Micic of the Initiative of the Young for Human Rights who is also in the organization board says for Blic that implementation of that decision would actually mean that this year's decision over ban could not have been made.
Goran Miletic says that this is ‘a complete capitulation by the State'.
‘The Pride is not a circus that shall leave the city, we are staying here and we shall be here next year, too', he said adding that Serbia Government by its decision over ban demonstrated that it does not respect the Constitution and minority groups.