Centre for Civic Education (CCE) hereby responds to the statement made by the president of the parliamentary club of the Movement Europe Now (PES), Vasilije Čarapić, on the Central News of NOVA M television, on 23 March 2024 in which he commented on the CCE’s publication “MPs and Interns Must Perform Much Better – first six months of the 28th convocation of the Parliament through activities and official travels”.
Čarapić claimed that the data presented in the aforementioned publication are not accurate, that the publication does not specify the monitoring period to which the data refer, and that they received official data from the Parliament’s service indicating that all MPs of their parliamentary club spoke in the plenary and had speaking time.
CCE reminds that the time period covered by the data in the publication is clearly indicated at as many as 20 places in the publication, which Čarapić could not have missed if he had ever looked at or read the publication or the accompanying press release. Namely, the time period is prominently displayed on the cover and refers to the first six months of the Parliament’s work, from 27 July 2023 to 1 February 2024.
CCE publicly presents the document obtained from the Parliament’s service, which contains the data used for the publication, and clearly indicated the period to which the data refer and the speaking time per MP. Since Čarapić stated that has a document from the Parliament’s service showing otherwise, he should present it to the public.
CCE emphasizes that the approach of MP Čarapić is not only superficial but also irresponsible and actionable, as he publicly presents unfounded facts. It is particularly concerning when such statements come from the leader of the parliamentary club, especially of the ruling party. Such statements are not in line with the democratic principles of reasoned dialogue with the civil sector, especially those parts with a critical expression.
We hope that in the future Čarapić will carefully read the material before reacting to it, and the least expected of him now is to issue a public apology for the false claims with which he attempted to question the credibility of our work.
Nikola Mirković, Programme Associate