Vucic: I don't accept independence of Kosovo! I don't want to return any child to their mother in a coffin

During this media appearance, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, addressed the citizens of Serbia and the region regarding very important topics that occupy the attention of the whole public

Milomir Maric last night hosted President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic in the show Cirilica ("Cyrillic"). He discussed crucial political issues that occupy the attention of the entire region with President Vucic.

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"Everything was done according to procedure, I am proud of my children, everywhere they can represent me personally, but not in an institutional sense. Why did he attend the Serb Republic Day, if it is unconstitutional, they asked. Every time I go to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I inform Dodik, Zeljka, Komsic and Bakir. It's not my obligation, but I always call," said Vucic, referring to his son Danilo Vucic's visit to Banja Luka.

New attacks on Serbia

Speaking about the attacks on Serb children in Kosovo and Metohija and in Sarajevo, the president said that the situation is serious and that it will only get more complicated.

"The situation is serious for us and is getting more complicated. There will be many elections in the region, which means new attacks on Serbia. What could we observe? On Christmas Eve after the incident, we all noticed and it hurt me the most, there are crazy people everywhere, it was interesting for me that no one from EULEX, the Americans and the UN said that our children were attacked, some mentioned their names, or (said it was) two persons, but no one could conclude from that who the attacker was and who the victims were.

They are children, including this 20-year-old, they were 'armed' with a badnjak branch and nothing else. They were shot at only because they are Serbs! I say this so that people would understand how difficult the position of the state and the people is. Please, unfortunately, I was the one who opposed the Albanian terror - said Vucic.

Political situation of Serbia and Kosovo

"The story about sanctions is a disgusting story to us, there are many 'heroes' who spoke about sanctions being imposed after the elections. They lied, I was just leading the country and I didn't know what would happen tomorrow, I couldn't give up my people. I guarded the position we achieved, we are the servants of every spoken word. Let's impose them after a year? What are we supposed to do, cancel Tchaikovsky and Dostoyevsky in schools, what will our children learn, should we demolish monuments?

Belgrade is one of the safest cities in the world. Those who come from Moscow are against Putin, those from Ukraine are pro Putin and that is very interesting, something similar was happening with Serbia in the 90s.

I am going to say that we have succeeded in many things, but it is so little for our people in Kosovo because we have limited space and I am grateful to everyone who understands the situation. I always behaved responsibly, we did not make any moves, their job is to protect their child at any cost, and that is our problem. That's why we have to build the country and be stronger, that's why we will invest in the defense industry, we export a lot of weapons. The Russians want us to sell to them as well, but even if we wanted to we couldn't, we sell the EU NORA, a howitzer that shoots 40 and up to 50 rounds. When you are weak militarily then you are nothing."

President on relationship with ministers

"You know what I think about ministers. I kicked out one of them, two strong directors to be exact, this is not hunting and fishing, you have to be on time and respect other people's time. I yelled at them, I did and I would do it again! They laughed, I let them go, then sent them home, the Government of Serbia, the institution and what we do there must be respected.

They reproached me for abandoning the Russians, and we did not impose any sanctions, sometimes we are not rational. We are opening three stadiums in Zajecar, Loznica and Leskovac, and we plan to work on Red Star's as well, two to be exact, so let them play where they want. I believe in Dragan Stojkovic and I believe in the World Cup, the results are good. I believe in better results, but we are making progress in handball as well. People don't just want to be supporters, they want to come eat and drink, I like to watch the games."

Train running late and destruction of infrastructure

"We reduced the speed during two days, but that is scandalous, and such an attitude towards the state. They say I'm nervous, how could I not be! Kragujevac - Zastava, Krusik - Valjevo, Sloboda Cacak, these are our factories, many people are on sick leave, many of them are retiring. I wonder how they think that a company can work and be successful when there are 700 people who are not coming to work every day, 500 in Valjevo and 400 in Cacak. The state is there on wait, they go abroad, I have said this now and I know you don't like it but I can't jump out of my own skin. Lithium, just someone explain to me why they didn't allow it, Germans and Americans are stupid and make money, but we are smart?

I cannot be elected a third time according to the constitution, and therefore I will not hide anything. I plan to put money into everything, but there will be no more games. Don't let me tell you what trade unions are like, we have people who are fantastic. Roads, railways Belgrade-Nis, we are planning everything and these are big things, incredible, but we have to be fair and we cannot support every strike. We've put ourselves in a situation where we allocate a lot of money to basketball clubs, they are paid like some in the EU, they get huge money from the state and only a strong state can finance it.

Good news does not come to me, they only thing they send me is from Kurti and from the others spitting on Serbia. Somebody send me something nice! When I go to Belgrade Waterfront, I see those who were against it, and they bought apartments there. But it's no good, there is this thing with us that we are not satisfied, the Gallery broke all records, it used to be Delta City, the Gallery had 103,000 people, before that 119,000 in one day. We had 4 million tourists, 13 million overnight stays, we have developed tourism, Belgrade attracts a lot of people to us, Air Serbia has a profit of 21 million, and once they were on the verge of bankruptcy, today we have 24 planes and once we had 11. Airport, Prokop, metro, we are working on everything and we will be a metropolis in the true sense of the word.

President on finances

"An excellent signal of how we did in December, we always have the largest part of the income on the 15th of the month, all the payments take place then and the expected amount is 68 billion, we will have almost 80 billion. We will have 100 million euros more in the coffers, but we need 130 million for gas, and reforms are needed in EPS, we will have very low price corrections. We are moving in the direction of 1000 euros average salary by 2025. That's what we're like, that's how the two of us (him and the host) started whining tonight, we all like to whine, but the people are right. I know how much prices have gone up, people see and feel it, and that's why we have the highest increase in salaries and pensions in Europe. We have to understand that it is not throwing money out of a jar, we are cumulatively better than everyone in the last three years. We are the fastest growing country in the Europe. Now you can't even build anymore, the prices are chaotic. It's difficult, but we are building and I will read you the official statements to a kilometer.

By the end of this year, we will build more roads than Tito, Milosevic and DOS combined. We did little from 1990 to 2000. No repairs were done, only reconstruction of 31 kilometers, total investment 27.5 million euros. Zero kilometers, no (road) reconstruction.

We brought back all the people who were laid off, the unemployment rate and the employment rate, 25.4% unemployment rate, but in 2012 it was 54%. We de facto lost 400,000 people, who were giving us pensions, and that was a problem, it was like that in 2012, but now the situation is much better. Ten years after that, today we have a million fewer inhabitants, we now have a great number and the influx is smaller, it is there but much less."

On construction of highways and railways

"After the bridges, and the debts that got paid back, we built a lot. I hope that we will do a total of 530 kilometers of roads, that is more in 11 years than they did in 20. We are talking about the Grdelica Gorge we did, which is very expensive and demanding, Milosevic did the part near Presevo, Pakovrace-Milos Veliki, the bypass around Belgrade towards Pancevo and Ostruznica, to Orlovaca.

The 'Y' branch that we often forget, we forget a piece of the Morava Corridor, and we are now finishing that part of the road, in March we will open it from Pojate to Krusevac, we will finish Surcin which leads to Milos Veliki (highway), Iverak-Lajkovac, we believe we will finish it all by the end of this year. Also, we will finish Ruma-Sabac by August, the road through Toplica, that's for sure for this year, and with that we've already come close to 500 kilometers.

We still have 944 kilometers planned and we have not given up on our goals."

President on the attacks on the Vucic family

"Few people can hear us, especially in the era of social networks. Nobody cares how the country is run, they only care about their passions. When blood was needed, no analyst or politician came forward to help, except to criticize their own country. Those people are just as vile and dangerous for the state as those who tell us to accept an independent Kosovo, but for me it is not a done deal and I keep the peace for the sake of our children, because we wouldn't want to return any child in a coffin to any mother.

I don't want to equate anyone, everyone has their own interests, and always will have them. We must not stand in our own way, we must not demand from others what we would not demand from ourselves.

Solak's media announced a noose around my neck. They didn't say it, it's all on the networks, they talk about us taking 200 billion, these are senseless fabrications. I'm thinking about what they're going to blackmail me with, to bring it to me on paper, and say that I'll have to accept Kosovo. It's a noose for Serbia, not for Vucic, but it's important that the noose is tightened for Vucic. Why don't they tell the people what their policy is towards Kosovo? I don't have any house or villa abroad, we have one house in Cipoljic, our house that was burned down is there, now it is being fixed.

They haven't told us any terrible things yet, nobody from the EU has told us anything. Europe is important to us, hardly anyone is in favor of that path of ours, but I have to say also the things that are not so popular. I'm not afraid of the story about clusters, they won't let anyone into the EU before us, I worry about investments, they left Russia lightly, and there they had much more than here. We keep the public debt low, it will never exceed 57% and let no one worry about it. Money is expensive in the world now."

Vucic on the region and attack on children from Kosovo

"If I may, I will need a few minutes, the situation is serious for us and this year there will be a lot of elections, which will be a good opportunity for new attacks on Serbia. Apart from physical attacks, we have to find a way out of it all. On Christmas Eve after the incident, we all noticed and it hurt me the most, there are crazy people everywhere, it was interesting for me that no one from EULEX, the Americans and the UN said that our children were attacked, some mentioned their names, or that it was two persons, but no one could conclude who the attacker was and who was attacked.

They are children, including this 20-year-old, they were 'armed' with a badnjak branch. They were shot at only because they are Serbs! Please, I was unfortunately the only one of those who opposed the Albanian terror. What's the essence, let's ask that question. When you saw that they were in Belgrade, because of the murders during NATO aggression, or the 16 that were killed in RTS (building)? Is it that someone participated in those attacks and that's why they are silent?

Why is the president not allowed to go to Jasenovac? When you see what is being done, you understand some things. If you saw in the Sarajevo press, 'Vucic's tabloids', they thought that because of Zvezdara, that it was Zvezda (Red Star). They (children) were attacked because they were from Serbia, everyone knows it, but no one will say it, because it must not be said, and if it were the other way around it would be different. There was also urination in the mosque, it's terrible and not good for anyone, it's a holy place for Muslims. It's not a problem for us (to talk about), but it's a problem for them to say Serbia or Serbs out loud. They want Serbia defeated and on its knees," said Vucic.

"It's a strange logic, I've been in power for 10 and a half years, I've never said a bad word, and they called me a 'sniper from the hill', then in a photo edit they put a rifle instead of an umbrella. That matrix of lies was not established by chance, they all know what is being done, none of our conversations bore fruit. Bosniaks in Serbia by and large vote for me, because they see what I want for them and that I am not against them.

This kind of campaign is being waged against me all the time. The same is the case in Podgorica, I answered two questions maybe about Montenegro because we had countless troubles, so now it turns out that I own the whole world and I pay journalists in Tel Aviv, please! None of the Serbs were in favor of removing the barricades, I begged them in Raska to do it, I knew I was right and I just wanted to save their lives.

It's up to us to try to talk, despite everything and all the insults and thousands of articles from Zagreb against me, the goal is to calm relations, because it is important for us. Do I believe that's possible? I'm not a great optimist, but I hope... There is no worse killing ground (than Jasenovac), unless it's Auschwitz, and Jasenovac is (commemorated) in Jerusalem and that can't be erased!

They call me Puin's servant, that I am the same as him and that Serbia will attack Sarajevo and Pristina, and all that is done as a deal to undermine Serbia, but they did not anticipate that we rose up and became stronger. They're not after me because I have thick lips or I because I was killing with a sniper, they do it because Serbia is making rapid progress and you can see that at every step. The only country that did not impose sanctions, and now they call us and they know that our law is such that there is no war. Have we lost a small number of people in wars? We lost lives in different ways, and in all conflicts let's save our people now! It is up to us to preserve a freedom loving country and just make our own decisions.

(Telegraf.rs)