PM Vucevic: Protesters' ultimate demand will be transitional government, they will not get mandate for that

Prime Minister of Serbia Milos Vucevic said today that it is indisputable that a lot of people took part in yesterday's protest in Belgrade's Slavija Square, but that he did not fully understand the demands heard during the gathering, and that in the end, the key demand will be for Serbia to get a transitional government.

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"There were a lot of people and whoever says it wasn't like that wouldn't be telling the truth. When I say a large number of people, if someone gathers 25,000 to 30,000 or 35,000, that's a big gathering and I don't know why the organizers or participants would be ashamed of those numbers," he told TV Pink.

He assessed that in the end everything will come down to demanding a transitional government.

"They want to show that the institutions are not functioning, they want to paralyze the state and that is why the way out of that situation would be a transitional government. Now, there is one problem, they will never get a mandate to form a transitional government from the president of the Republic, that is their problem. They (the opposition) were told this yesterday, and let me tell you that we from SNS will never vote (in the Assembly) for such a government," he said.

He added that only new elections can be talked about.

"They hope that some new Gonzalez will come, as it has been happening since 1997, and that someone will force the state leadership of Serbia (to accept) that it would be good and useful to form a transitional government. However, they are making a cardinal political mistake. During the 1996/97 protests, the main reason was the election result, that is, the failure to recognize electoral victory of the opposition in several cities. Now the social and political circumstances are different," the prime minister said.

He added that the situation is completely different today and that in the last two election cycles, the electoral list gathered around SNS, i.e. Aleksandar Vucic, won parliamentary, provincial and local votes convincingly and gained full legitimacy to lead the country and all levels of government.

"Then, a terrible tragedy happened, the accident on November 1 in Novi Sad, and someone gave themselves the right to ask to lead the country, on the wave of a tragedy. It's not the first time," he stressed.

Vucevic added that one of the most important roads collapsed in Brazil and that there were also fatalities, but that it is no justification when it is said that such things happen in other countries as well.

"It's just an indication that Serbia is not a unique case, which would warrant bringing down the state all institutions in the country because a tragedy has occurred. That was my message when I spoke about the whole event. We cannot topple the state because of a tragedy. A tragedy is a call to stand united," he said.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)