Page 15 - bne_newspaper_April_13_2018

Southeast Europe
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
Serbian government's takeover of Nis airport sparks local fury
bne IntelliNews
About 1,000 citizens of Nis, the largest town
in southern Serbia, staged a one-hour protest against the transfer of the ownership of Konstan- tin Veliki Airport from the local government to the central government on April 10.
Nis’s airport was famous until 2015 as an airport without travellers. However, regular air traffic resumed in June 2015 after a 19-month break when Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air started operating flights from Nis to Basel. The government now says it wants to further develop the airport, but its decision to take it over has proved controversial.
The protest was held on the day when the local assembly was supposed to back the March 30 decision of the Nis government to make the transfer. However, the rally, as well as loud resistance and criticisms from some of the local population, forced the assembly to postpone
the vote for a undefined period of time, regional broadcaster N1 reported.
The number of protesters is small compared to the total population of the city, which numbers about 200,000 people. Most of them (like most Serbian citizens) do not know what kind of change the transfer of the ownership to the central government would bring about in practice. However, for some of them it is a matter of decentralisation and “not giving anything else
to Belgrade”.
Representatives and sympathisers of the National Coalition for Decentralisation also participated in the April 10 protest. Speaking at the rally, repre- sentative of the coalition Milan Jovanovic said that Nis has been fighting against centralisation and for the town’s airport since 1986.
“When the town took over the airport in 2000 ...
a tree was growing in the middle of the runway because the airport was bombed and destroyed [in the Nato bombing in 1999]. Nis’ priorities are to get donations and renew the airport,” Jovanovic told gathered citizens, N1 reported.
However, officials argue that the airport in Nis
is not able to make any development move or investment on its own yet and badly needs help from the general government’s pocket. So far,
it operates mainly thanks to donations from the general government budget. According to Min- ister of Construction, Transport and Infrastruc- ture Zorana Mihajlovic, Serbia’s government has poured €3.6mn into the airport within the last three years, while Nis’ government invested an additional €2mn through subsidies, thanks to which the airport served 331,000 passengers last year. It also recorded net profit of RSD28.43mn (€263,941) in 2016.
Despite officials’ efforts to explain their decision, some Nis citizens announced at the April 10 protest that they don’t plan to give up their resistance to the transfer of the airport’s property.