Kragujevac the City of Poverty

New City Authorities in Kragujevac

BETWEEN AMBITIONS AND DEMAGOGY

AIM Belgrade, 25 February, 1997

Not long ago, Mayor of Kragujevac, Veroljub Stevanovic, called the citizens of the capital of Sumadija to civil disobedience: "Do not pay interest on taxes for property and taxes for electric meters, that is TV subscription fee..."

When he called his fellow-citizens to this type of civil disobedience (unseen in the history of the Serbs ever since the time of Turkish domination), Mayor Stevanovic primarily had in mind the too difficult social and material situation of at least 70 to 80 per cent of the citizens of Kragujevac. According to official statistical data, the centre of Sumadija has for quite some time now been one of the poorest urban environments in Serbia, if not even in a much broader space. This is illustrated, among other, by the fact that more than 30 thousand workers of Zastava, Filip Kljajic and other ruined firms are for years wandering around the streets unemployed, or trying to survive by help of smuggling and petty crime. Along with them, about 15 thousand, mostly young and educated citizens of Kragujevac are constantly unemployed. There is also a whole army of 25 thousand half hungry pensioners. Simply, every third family in Kragujevac is a social welfare case, while majority of the others are in an insignificantly better position.

Sending word to the citizens of Kragujevac not to pay taxes and TV subscription fee (the money collected in this way flows directly into the republican budget), Mayor Veroljub Stevanovic for the first time made it publicly known that the Republic of Serbia owes Kragujevac over 24 million dinars only from last year's social appropriations. For example, the last children's allowances in Kragujevac were paid in April 1996.

Judging only according to this, it is not difficult to conclude that Kragujevac and its citizens are in a catastrophic situation in every respect. As the overall Kragujevac catastrophe - according to many - is caused by unprofessional, unresponsible, and not rarely even criminal rule of local and republican officials of the Socialist Party of Serbia, the election victory of the coalition Together in Kragujevac surprised only the Socialists and their few hard-core supporters.

All eyes of the citizens of Kragujevac are now fixed on the new authorities and their every move. One would say that the impoverished inhabitants of central Serbia rightfully expect progress from those who they have placed their trust in. The trouble with these expectations, however, is in the fact that except for the authorities nothing has changed in Kragujevac: Zastava industries are still not working, and when it will begin - nobody knows; Filip Kljajic industries are not giving any signals of revival, teachers are on strike, and the number of welfare cases is increasing. Socially threatened citizens have recently started practically besieging the city assembly building and the newly elected leaders of Kragujevac.

"The new city authorities are facing the gravest challenges. On the one hand are the impoverished people, and on the other the ruined economy and the blockade by the republic which is not meeting its obligations to the citizens of Kragujevac", says Prime Minister of the city government, Borivoje Radic, (in)directly corroborating the stances from the call of Mayor Veroljub Stevanovic to the citizens of Kragujevac not to pay interest and TV subscription fee.

Radic stresses that the republican authorities are blocking Kragujevac by preserving social ownership. That is why the new authorities will try, according to what he says, to create an ambience for development of privately-owned economy, because it seems to be the easiest to move it from the standstill. Development of private entrepreneurship, Radic believes, will also make it possible to reduce the number of the unemployed in Kragujevac, and the surplus income created in this sphere would at least partially relieve social tensions.

"One of the next priorities is stimulation of development of agriculture, especially because Kragujevac has significant potentials for it in the surrounding area. As agriculture depends the least on imports, and as it can be a great exporter, it is necessary to broaden the system of stimulating funds as soon as possible and directly influence its revitalization", says Radic explaining that by stimulating funds he means "loans, warranted prices and various tax and other reliefs". At the same time, at the Kragujevac hinterland in Sumadija, it should be insisted on "development of cattle breeding and fruit growing".

The Prime Minister of Kragujevac also believes that farmers in Sumadija must turn back to the traditions of real cooperatives. "We need", he thinks "cooperatives like we used to have in our villages between the two world wars. These cooperatives will be established as associations of village households which produce goods".

"These are, therefore, spheres in which we will try to find potentials which can quickly be activated and help us to overcome the exceptionally difficult situation in Kragujevac", says Radic, and to the question how city (local) authorities can help development of agriculture, he answers that "the city can help the farmers to get better organized; to supply them with production materials - seeds, fertilizers and fuel - with less difficulties; to establish direct connections between them and processing industries in close vicinity; to organize purchasing of their products; and to provide credits for them from banks on the territory of Kragujevac".

New leaders of Kragujevac are, of course, quite aware of the fact that their greatest concern will be big systems - Zastava and Filip Kljajic above all - which employ over 40 thousand citizens of Kragujevac, out of which over 30 thousand have not even entered factory halls for years.

"Unfortunately, the city cannot do much about that, nor contribute significantly to improvement of the situation. We are aware that problems of big systems cannot be resolved without the change of the authorities on the level of the republic, and we will clearly say so to our fellow-citizens", Prime Minister of Kragujevac stresses.

He also says that the new Kragujevac administration will do everything to improve operation of public utility enterprises in the city, and that at the moment possibilities of a new way of organizing them is considered. By the middle of this year, according to Radic's words, a unique system of public utility services will be created in Kragujevac, which will in its work use the experience of other centres and environments which have successfully resolved these problems by now. They are also planning to modernize and rationalize the work of city services "which will reflect capabilities of the authorities to govern Kragujevac".

Finally, new authorities in Kragujevac would also like to improve the situation in the neglected superstructure - the spheres of culture, education and sports.

Time will show to what extent they will succeed. It should, however, be mentioned that those well-informed about developments on the political and social scene of Kragujevac and Serbia, despite all ambitions of the new authorities, do not expect a speedy improvement of life in Kragujevac. They would be extremely satisfied even if the new authorities will be more honest and transparent in their work than the previous ones. Contrary to the well-informed, majority of those who are uninformed expect from those whom they had placed their trust in to ensure them with at least a somewhat better life, if possible very soon. And this will be the first and the greatest problem of the new authorities in Kragujevac. Calls to civil disobedience have a pleasant sound for the ears of the poor people in the city, but have an irresistable overtone of empty populist demagogy.

(AIM) Zoran Radovanovic