SNSD is blackmailing Stanivuković through the budget, the mayor claims citizens are at a loss

The conflict between the assembly majority, composed of parties gathered around SNSD, and the mayor of Banja Luka, Draško Stanivuković (PDP), over the adoption of the budget has continued. SNSD has proposed many amendments to the proposed budget, which the mayor considers scandalous.

- I could not have imagined in my worst dreams that someone could do this to the people living in Banja Luka. They are proposing amendments that block life in Banja Luka. This is an economic crime against the citizens of Banja Luka. Go ahead and adopt this, but then explain why Banja Luka is without lighting, roads, unkempt parks..., Stanivuković said.

He said he could not believe that someone could propose amendments that would leave Banja Luka without infrastructure maintenance.

"They have abolished a million marks for hygiene in the time of a pandemic," Stanivuković stated, adding that funds for road maintenance have been reduced by 90 percent, with only 10 percent left for this year, which has already been spent in the first three months.

- The mayor is behaving like a child when their toy is taken away - said the head of the SNSD councilor club in the Banja Luka City Assembly, Dragoslav Topić. and invited Stanivuković to propose heads of city departments and appoint a city manager.

He says that the ruling coalition is ready to talk with Stanivuković even today and that they have invited him to cooperate several times, but he refused.

"This is a crime against the citizens and Banja Luka," said Stanivuković, emphasizing that this is a brave audacity of the assembly majority councilors to do something like this to their own citizens.

The assembly majority has invited the mayor to sit down with them to try to reach an agreement.

After the meeting of the SNSD councilor club in the Banja Luka City Assembly with representatives of coalition parties, he said that one of the important amendments they proposed relates to support for pronatalist policy, i.e., that all mothers in the city receive 500 KM in aid this year.

Topić stated that the amendment also provides for one million KM for all entrepreneurs affected by the coronavirus epidemic, adding that they had also invited Stanivuković to an agreement on this issue, but they did not find understanding.

- We also had sensitivity towards pensioners, as the amendments provide around 200,000 KM to the Pensioners' Association for assistance to the most vulnerable categories - said Topić.

He stated that the mayor of Banja Luka had no consideration for healthcare workers either, and that the ruling coalition proposed through amendments that healthcare workers be paid a one-time bonus of 500 KM.

According to him, the mayor of Banja Luka is acting as if COVID does not even exist.

Topić says that republican bodies will be involved in resolving the issue of road infrastructure in Banja Luka and that Stanivuković's claim that streets in the city will not be asphalted is untrue.

According to Stanivuković, the proposed amendments are not legal because they block the functioning of the city.

"This insults the intelligence of the citizens, and our duty will be to put up their photos in parks and on roads to show who blocked the life of Banja Luka and its citizens," said Stanivuković, adding that he cannot guarantee that after this, citizens will not come to their homes to ask them what they are doing?

"With the budget, we proposed 31 million in investments and five million less in expenses," but they do not accept it, instead they are blocking the city, which is a crime against these citizens," said Stanivuković.

"They found a rope that must break, I will not be responsible for the reaction that will occur, because there are many calls from citizens who are against such decisions by the assembly majority, because Banja Luka is being put in a difficult position. Normal life is being blocked... In the future, there will be no street repairs, nor city lighting, public transport, park maintenance, or hygiene...", said Stanivuković.

He said that the assembly majority councilors who are proposing this will be persona non grata in this city.