Dacic: "Some people are mistaken in thinking dialogue will bring them to power"

"Who will be representatives of the EP (European Parliament)? Who will be the participants? We don't even know who wants to participate," said Dacic

President of the National Assembly of Serbia Ivica Dacic says that further talks about the beginning of the inter-party dialogue between the authorities and the opposition on improving election conditions would follow after (Orthodox) Christmas, and said that "some people are very much mistaken if they think the dialogue will bring them to power."

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Regarding the criticism from some opposition circles that he is allegedly trying to delay the beginning of the dialogue, he explained that as the president of the Assembly, he is responsible only for the period since he was elected to that position, i.e., since October 22.

"The agreement with McAllister (chair of the Foreign Policy Committee of the European Parliament) was to hammer out the details after Christmas. Who will be representatives of the EP? Who will be the participants? We don't even know who wants to participate. I'm not running away from the role of the co-chair in the dialogue," Dacic pointed out in a statement for RTS.

Dacic said that the first course of the dialogue was established last year on the basis of an exchange of letters between McAllister and Maja Gojkovic (former National Assembly president) in such a way as to "establish a dialogue process under the auspices of the parliament president, which would be helped by MEPs."

One co-chair is the president of the Assembly, and the other is someone from the EP, said Dacic and added that it was agreed at the time that the second phase (after the elections held in June) of the dialogue would have a longer-term perspective.

Asked about the quality of debates in the Assembly and the "calling out" of certain public figures as "traitors" and "foreign mercenaries" by some deputies, Dacic said that the adopted Code of Conduct should apply to the entire political scene.

"In all that, you should treat others the way you want them to treat you. And that was not the case during the attack on Aleksandar Vucic's mother. You don't condemn that with silence. Which politician, public figure, journalist condemned it... or some media association? The role of politics is to calm and resolve conflicts," the president of the Assembly said, Tanjug reported.

Dacic recalled that President Vucic also condemned the insults aimed at certain public figures heard in the parliament, publicly stating that debates should not go in that direction.

"I wasn't skeptical about the vaccine"

Asked about his position on vaccination, Dacic said that he was wrongly perceived by the public as someone who is "skeptical" about that issue.

"I wasn't skeptical about the vaccine, but about the speed of preparation. You remember the swine flu from 2009. The WHO announced a pandemic and NOVARTIS said they already had a vaccine. A vaccine needs to be effective and safe. Clinical trials are needed to achieve this. Now, as far as I know, there are currently about 100 vaccines in the process of being tested," stated Dacic.

"Will I be vaccinated or not? If the Agency for Medicines and a nurse approve the vaccine, everyone who can and to whom it is recommended should get the vaccine," Dacic added.

He says that he has not had antibodies so far, and that he got tested for COVID-19.

"I like the popular saying, 'don't see the doctor if you don't have to'," said the president of the Assembly and added that the ultimate goal of everyone in the society is to have fewer people infected and dying.

As he said, the approach should be to treat the sick and for the healthy to be careful not to get infected.

"I want to get vaccinated. Sinopharm, Pfizer or Sputnik V... Going by (my) politics, it would probably be Sputnik V," Dacic said jokingly.

(Telegraf.rs)