Vucic: We will not recognize Kosovo as independent at any cost

Photo: Tanjug/AP/VLADIMIR SPORCIC

Serbian President and member of the SNS Presidency Aleksandar Vucic said last night, referring to opposition protests, that those who are powerful in the world need to finish the dirty work in our country now for three reasons - regarding the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija, to prevent they Serbia from being the leading power in the region, and because he and Serbia resisted a Srebrenica resolution at the UN.

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"Why do you think they need this dirty work done now, these more powerful ones from abroad, who are not from the region? They need it for at least three reasons. The first reason is that they are trying to finish everything about 'Kosovo' as soon as possible, and they see that, while I am president and while this government is in place, we will not recognize 'Kosovo' as independent at any cost," Vucic told young people during a forum called "Future, not the past," organized by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNP).

He explained that those powers do not need this because they love Albanians and hate Serbs, but so that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be able to refer to the so-called "Kosovo precedent" when talking about the regions of Kherson, Zaporozhye, Donetsk, Lugansk, and Crimea.

As the second reason, he stated that the powerful in the world cannot stand Serbia being the leading power in the region, recalling that in 2012 Serbia was "the third or fourth."

"Why can't they stand it? Because Serbia is an independent and sovereign country, which you cannot boss around, which does not react to someone from an embassy calling and saying 'this law is allowed, this law is not allowed'... Serbia did not want that, Serbia does not want that and never will. Serbia is starting to make decisions on its own. It is starting to have its own government. And to make decisions in its best interest," stated Vucic.

As a third reason, he cited the opposition to the adoption of a resolution about Srebrenica in May and the whole struggle that went with it.

"You remember in May, when there was an attempt to adopt a resolution and they adopted it in the end, contrary to all laws, legitimacy and international public legal customs and norms. They made the decision to mark day of genocide in Srebrenica. We opposed it. And then everyone told me - 'they will never forget this'. Because I led a brave fight, of brave countries in the world, to stand up to the most powerful, from Germans to Americans. And I knew that it would cost me personally, and all those who stood up to them, dearly," Vucic said.

As an example, the president stated that the protests in Serbia have been supported by Natasa Kandic, who, he assessed, hopes that a government will come to power that will say that genocide took place in Srebrenica.

"Maybe it is better not to be in any government, than to be in such governments, which will serve the interests of others, and not the interests of their own people. And I will never, as long as I live, change that position and that attitude of mine," Vucic said.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)