Assembly President Brnabic reacts to Rectorate's decision to reject President Vucic's invitation to dialogue

Photo: Tanjug/Vladimir Sporcic

President of the National Assembly of Serbia Ana Brnabic has assessed that the Rector's Collegium of the University of Belgrade, which announced on Tuesday that they decided not to accept the invitation of President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic to dialogue, meant that this body has "shut itself down."

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Brnabic reminded in a post on X that on January 21, the National Assembly held a session of the Committee on Education, where it was heard publicly from the rector of the University of Belgrade that the situation for more than 230,000 students at state universities is not catastrophic and that there is no need to worry too much about the fate of their studies because there is a plan.

"After that, students from SKONUS, as the representative body of all student parliaments, sent a letter to the rector with a request to publish this plan, so that the students could see it. To date, that plan has not been published, nor has the rector found it necessary to respond to the letter sent by the student parliaments at all. So much for the readiness for dialogue, even with the students," Brnabic said.

She added that the University of Belgrade designated precisely the Rector's Collegium as the body for discussions with representatives of state institutions.

Brnabic added that the president of Serbia, as the man with absolutely the greatest degree of legitimacy because he is the only one elected directly, as an individual, officially and publicly sent an invitation to the Rector's Collegium for discussions.

"The Rectors' Collegium replied to that: we will not talk. And they ended all that with the sentence: 'We remain open to discussions, with full academic and personal responsibility!' And out of all of it - this very sentence is the biggest disgrace in the letter sent by the Rector's Collegium," Brnabic stated.

Brnabic assessed that this is "misleading the people, turning this country upside down" and openly disregarding the will of its citizens, its institutions and its laws.

"What kind of responsibility are you talking about when, more than two months ago, you yourself decided to suspend the Law on Higher Education and the Law on Student Organizations? What kind of discussions are you talking about when you don't even respond to a letter from students worried about their studies, and when your body, which you tasked with conducting dialogue with state institutions, refuses to talk to a man for whom 2.25 million people in this country voted?," Brnabic asked.

Brnabic then concluded that the Rector's Collegium has "shut itself down."

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)