Speaker of the Serbian Parliament Ana Brnabic stated today, after Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic said that “people are taking justice into their own hands because those who are obliged to protect them have failed,” that this is a statement coming from someone who is in need of a new job, since her mandate is about to expire.
“This statement comes from a person who has zero personal and professional integrity, and who needs a new job because in November this year her second mandate ends, after which by law she cannot apply for a third one,” Brnabic wrote on the social network X.
According to her, Jankovic received two mandates in the position of Commissioner for the Protection of Equality thanks to the parliamentary majority secured by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
“At that time she had no objections whatsoever, in fact, we were accused of abolishing independent institutions because we supported Brankica Jankovic as an SNS cadre,” Brnabic added.
The Speaker of Parliament, who is also an SNS official, assessed that the Commissioner’s statement was nothing more than “a recommendation to foreigners,” an application for a new job in some international organization or NGO.
“It says the most about Mrs. Jankovic, and absolutely nothing about the topic she talks about. Especially given the fact that she has done absolutely nothing for equality in Serbia, and that the trust of citizens in the institution she leads is nonexistent — since people don’t even know that such an institution exists. Spit harder on Serbia, Brankica, maybe you will get a better job from foreigners. I could write a whole treatise on the nonsense she said, but who has time to waste on such people,” Brnabic wrote.
Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic earlier today assessed that the street clashes are happening because public trust has been lost and “people are taking justice into their own hands because those who were obliged to protect them have failed.”
“Unequal treatment of citizens, giving advantage to some over others, creates resentment, anger, tensions whose dramatic and severe consequences we are witnessing right now,” Jankovic said in a statement.
Referring to the violence in the streets across Serbia and alarming reports of excessive use of force by law enforcement — particularly against minors, journalists, and women, including a case in which a police officer threatened a detained female student with rape — Jankovic condemned such conduct.
She appealed that it is “the last moment to stop such behavior and return everyone to the framework of the Constitution and the law, because otherwise the consequences will be incalculable,” adding that “for quite some time now she has been warning about the danger of rising violence and the collapse of trust in institutions.”
