Vucevic: RTS blockade is violence, criminal proceedings must be initiated against those responsible

Photo: Tanjug/Serbian Government/Slobodan Miljevic

Serbian Progressive Party leader Milos Vucevic said on Tuesday that the multi-day blockade of the premises of the public broadcaster RTS represents violence and pointed out that criminal proceedings must be initiated against all those who can be identified, in order to show that the rule of law exists.

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Commenting about the student blockades of RTS, Vucevic told TV Happy that those who participate in that must have criminal complaints filed against them.

"What is happening around RTS is violence, no one has any dilemma. The prosecutor's office and the police must initiate criminal proceedings against everyone they can identify. They must get criminal complaints, without that, they do not shy away from anything," said Vucevic.

He stated that it must be seen that there is the rule of law and a legal system, adding that it is the state that is under threat, not only RTS.

"The paradox is that RTS was sympathetic towards the blockaders. Their numbers are falling, but there are people who are radicalizing the situation. In my opinion, the right answer is criminal-legal responsibility for all those who do this," said Vucevic.

He stressed that anything else would mean a mockery of the legal system.

"Whenever we would file criminal complaints against those who were alarming the public and spreading fake news, they would calm down. They'd get quiet," said Vucevic.

Vucevic added that the government must work more on intelligence and counter-intelligence in order to protect the state.

He added that the blockaders also provide "material" to those whose agenda is to spread bad news about Serbia.

"Imagine how happy some in the region are when they see that students in Serbia are not in class, but whistling, screaming and kicking a principal or a teacher out of the school. I keep coming back to education and schools, because I think it is the hardest, most insidious attack on our country and our society. No one has ever done that to us and it will take us a long time to recover," Vucevic said.

He added that the attack on the educational system, which has been taking place during the previous months, had been thoroughly prepared for years.

Vucevic stated that this did not happen spontaneously and that it had been thoroughly prepared for at least 25 years.

"They stole six months of our lives, supposedly because of the accident in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, but every day they moved farther away from that topic. It's no longer a topic at all. It was just a trigger for them. You think that this kind of attack on the educational system happens spontaneously? This was prepared in depth for at least 25 years," Vucevic told TV Happy.

He noted that while he was at the helm of the Government of Serbia, he comprehended the scale of the destruction of the educational system.

"There was a lady who, after October 5 (2000), worked comprehensively on undermining the educational system and they invented institutes, one for improving the curriculum and the other for quality assessment," said Vucevic.

He added that the base of the educational system was moved to institutes that were given to non-governmental organizations, and that the third phase was the printing of textbooks.

"Then, we destroyed Zavod za Udzbnike (publisher) and said, come in Germans, Croats, come write and print textbooks. They mostly worked through grammar schools, through seminars, creating a network that was ready to be activated when the right moment came. Unfortunately, this is not a conspiracy theory. We must learn from this," said Vucevic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)