Opposition

Three-day talks in Podgorica launched by the Europeen Delegation in Montenegro to mediate with opposition parties ended on Wednesday with no breakthrough over the opposition boycott of parliament following last October's elections.

Opposition SDS party leader and ex Serbian president for two terms Boris Tadic says that "only a united opposition could remove Aleksandar Vucic from power."

However, he added - the project of "uniting" the opposition against "the current regime" should not be a project to "strengthen or coalesce any one individual party."

United Russia official Sergei Zheleznyak has confirmed that he invited the leaders of the Montenegrin opposition Democratic Front to Moscow.

Leaders of the DS party and the PSG movement Dragan Sutanovac and Sasa Jankovic should travel to Brussels on August 24, Vecernje Novosti is reporting on Friday.

The two opposition leaders will go there for a meeting with European Parliament official and rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister.

The chances of Serbia's opposition parties uniting into one formidable bloc have greatly receded after two key players, the Free Citizens' Movement and the Democratic Party, broke off their alliance.

The opposition was now in danger of splitting into two blocs, strengthening the hand of the government led by the Serbian Progressive Party, analysts told BIRN.

Opposition circles, or the "other half of Turkey," are suffering from post-system change trauma. It is not just the end of the parliamentary system and the authoritarian sway that has been sealed after the July 2016 coup attempt and the April 2017 referendum, everybody feels a deeper transformation of the political regime underway.

Members of the country's main opposition who have legitimate liberal views are few and far between. Is it any wonder, then, that those few are often attacked on the internet for their opinions or the way in which they express their views on certain issues?

Opposition SRS leader Vojislav Seselj says President Aleksandar Vucic's idea to launch "internal dialogue on Kosovo" is "pure stupidity."

Two pro-Russian opposition leaders in Montenegro and 12 other suspects will go on trial July 19 over their role in an alleged attempt to overthrow the government.

Montenegrin police arrested a group of Serbian nationals on the eve of a general election in October, accusing them of planning to storm parliament and target the then prime minister, pro-Western Milo Djukanovic.

In a democratic country, opposition counts. Democratic systems function with checks and balances. They also rely on transparency, accountability and responsibility. In parliamentary democracies, the legislative body is the reassurance of checks and balances.