The Democratic Party (DS) assessed that the government of Serbia is to blame for the tragedy.
“The blame for the tragedy is undoubtedly borne by everyone in the chain of state decision-making, execution of works and professional supervision. The greatest political, moral and legal responsibility is undoubtedly borne by the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, the Government of Serbia and all former ministers and state officials who participated in the failed reconstruction project of the station building “, stated the Novi Sad DS committee in a statement.
They added that it “goes without saying” that under the “hit of the law” those responsible from the Public Enterprise “Infrastruktur Železnica Srbije” which was an investor in that business, as well as the Chinese consortium which, according to information published this summer at the opening of the station building, was the main job bearer.
“The tragedy at the Novi Sad railway station is a consequence of the practice consciously established by Vučić and his government, in which the largest infrastructure works are carried out without any transparent procedure in contracting, control of spending of money and selection of contractors and supervision. As a rule, subcontractors are engaged in these works companies owned by members of the ruling regime that do not have the necessary professional knowledge or experience for these jobs,” the announcement reads.
They added that the building of the Novi Sad Railway Station has been reconstructed several times recently and, as Minister of Construction Goran Vesić stated during the third opening this summer, as much as 65 million euros were invested in it. “Today’s accident is not a single and isolated incident, but a direct and inevitable consequence of the system of managing the state and society by the regime of Aleksandar Vučić. All laws and norms in the field of public funds management are intentionally suspended in large state investments in order to quickly enrich the ruling elite and finance vote buying and other election manipulations. The citizens of Serbia are paying the price of the government’s blatant thievery with their lives,” DS assessed.
They added that today’s tragedy must not be covered up, as all the previous ones were covered up, starting with the flood in Obrenovac in 2014 until today.
DS sent its condolences to the families of the dead and expressed the hope that all the injured will recover quickly and successfully.
Swiss