Vucic on Kosovo plan: I expect great pressure to recognize independence, we're in a tough spot

PHOTO: RADE PRELIC

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic stated yesterday that there is no doubt we will face increasingly difficult pressure and that we are in a difficult situation. He reacted to the new plan for Kosovo, which was discussed yesterday in the US House of Representatives in which Madeleine Albright, Eliot Engel and Daniel Serwer took part.

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"I think it is clear now how right I was when I said the views of the administration of Mr. Biden are not in Serbia's favor. I hope that administration will have a slightly different attitude and policy in relation to what they presented in the House of Representatives of the Congress. We have to take care and know that these are important people and that we have to respond in a serious way," said Vucic.

He recalled the statement of the EP rapporteur for Kosovo, Viola von Cramon, who said that the five EU members who have not recognized Kosovo would be asked to do that.

"We will be facing the hardest possible pressure when it comes to recognizing Kosovo and be in a difficult position, I never hid that. Many in Serbia are happy about that, thinking that this is directed against me, but this is directed against everyone in Serbia. Everyone would like Serbia to be unimportant and weak again, as it had been in previous years..."

He added that he won't talk badly about either Engel or Albright.

"I expect great pressure when it comes to the Serb Republic and when it comes to Kosovo. We will fight with the truth, we will tell people the truth. I'm not going to say anything bad about those people, Albright, Engel, or Serwer - let them talk about me. Our job is to protect our interests and to be polite," he said and added:

Photo: Wikimedia/Flickr/LBJ Library

"If I, as the president of the Republic and without the consent of the government, signed an act on Kosovo's independence, I would receive the Nobel Peace Prize and I would be the greatest democrat in this part of the world. To say that the Serb Republic does not have any support from Serbia and that it will not receive any help, only then would I would become a true democrat, and I would also become beautiful."

He also stated that Serbia suits many in the region only when it is weak and humiliated.

"That is why today we take care that no one in the region feels threatened by Serbia. We want to be partners, but we do not want to be accused, to have our history altered, to be accused of being occupiers in Montenegro, of Serbs being the villains, of (Croatian death camp for Serbs) Jasenovac never existing. We will also pay homage to all victims, because we know that we are not sinless either," he said.

Vucic invites Bajatovic and Zorana Mihajlovic to a meeting

Vucic also referred to a simmering conflict between the minister of energy, Zorana Mihajlovic, and the director of the public company Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic.

Photo: Tanjug/Tara Radovanovic

"As for the relationship between Zorana Mihajlovic and Dusan Bajatovic, I invited them both to a meeting and asked the directors to show respect towards the minister, there needn't be love, but there must be respect and a relationship that works in a normal way, if not, we will turn to other measures," he said.

About rejected medal and the infectologist from Zajecar

Regarding the information that an infectologist from Zajecar, Nenad Ristovic, sent back his medal, which was recently given to him by the president, Vucic said that he was guided by this person's professional work, not by his political activities.

"I think that's my biggest compliment. I did not distribute the medals along partisan lines. I did not ask people in Zajecar from the SNS (Vucic's party) what they think about the man who was a member of Cedomir Jovanovic's LDP, I did not ask about his bad political activities. I was guided by his work. I am proud that this also showed the difference between myself and those who are our political opponents. You can't be thinking I'm going to call the local president of the SNS to find out what he thinks about it."

(Telegraf.rs)