Yugoslav Lower House Rejects No-Confidence VoteYugoslavia's lower house has voted against a no-confidence vote against the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, local media reports said Thursday.The vote, proposed jointly by the Serbian Radical Party and the Socialist Party of Serbia, was not passed on Thursday as a result of 29 votes for, 70 against and 3 abstentions. When putting forth the proposal at the meeting, Maja Gojkovic, a member of the Chamber of Citizens of the Federal Assembly, accused the federal government of performing badly since it took office four months ago. "The domestic situation is not as stable as before, the relations between Serbia and Montenegro have become worse, and the situation in the province of Kosovo and in southern Serbia is dangerous," he said. But Prime Minister Zoran Zizic said that the new government has started its work in great difficulties, because Yugoslavia has been isolated by the sanctions imposed on it for a quite long time. He stressed that the new government did score substantial achievements in the past four months. Politically, Yugoslavia is now a key partner in resolving political problems in the Balkan region. In the economic field, Zizic added, Yugoslavia's foreign exchange reserve has almost doubled from 300 million U.S. dollars four months ago to 580 million dollars, and the average employee's month wage has increased by 70 percent from 80 German marks (one mark equals 0.45 U.S. dollars) to 140 marks. After taking office last October, President Vojislav Kostunica formed a federal government made up of leaders of the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro in a bid to cement unity between Serbia and Montenegro. The new government headed by Zoran Zizic, who is vice chairman of the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro, came into power on November 4, 2000. |
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