Republic status for Vojvodina demanded

NOVI SAD - Members and supporters of the Vojvodina's Party and the Vojvodina Club held Sunday in Novi Sad the 'Walk for Vojvodina', on the occasion of 26 years since the 'anti-bureaucratic revolution' which, after months of protests, toppled the then government of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.

The protests of 1988 were provoked by the fact that changes to the Constitution imposed under the communist dictatorship of Josip Broz Tito made the Serbian provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija into "constituent parts of the federation".

In practice, this change disturbed the balance of power in the federation to the detriment of Serbia, which faced the threat of separatism and division of its territory. As a result, the protesters demanded the then communist and autonomy-supporting provincial government to resign.

The events of 1988 are also known as the 'yogurt revolution', as the protesters threw yogurt at the provincial government buildings and the officials who tried to speak to them. The protests ended in early October with the toppling of provincial government and bringing the powers of the province to the level of autonomy within Serbia.

In their protest walk on Sunday, the opponents of the 'anti-bureaucratic revolution' paused outside the Vojvodina government building and voiced their demands relating to the change to the Constitution, the federalization of Serbia, and the status of a republic for Vojvodina.

President of the Vojvodina Club NGO Branislava Kostic stressed in her address that 26 years ago "Vojvodina was stripped of its constitutional right to autonomy, and has been on a downward spiral ever since."
"We do not want just the legislative, judicial and executive power in...