Vucic: We are not selling former General Staff building, we are leasing it and getting huge investment

Printscreen: Youtube/Tanjug News Agency official

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said last tonight that the state does not plan to sell the premises of the former General Staff building in Belgrade, but to lease it in order to a get a huge investment that way.

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This was his reply when asked to comment on the statement of the leader of the opposition New DSS, Milos Jovanovic, who said that Serbia would not gain any geopolitical advantage by selling the General Staff building (that was bombed and damaged by NATO in 1999).

"Unlike Mr. Jovanovic, whose government sold the Marshalat, we are not selling the General Staff (building). Those great patriots sold Marshalat and the Guard Command on 4.2 hectares of land for 15 million dollars - 13 million euros. We would have earned 20 times more money for our country here. Not for ourselves, but for our country," Vucic told reporters in Paris after a working dinner he had with French President Emmanuel Macron.

In that case, he added, the state would not have sold anything, but would have leased those buildings and land long-term.

"And would have made a huge investment out of it, employed our construction companies, employed our people. Repaired a space that everyone would enjoy, made a tourist attraction out of something, rather than a place where no Belgraders or tourists can go, because it is (now) someone's embassy."

"But - that's how those fake patriots are. They always sell everything, and then use that term, even though we aren't sell anything. I think that people understood our argument very well, and take it easy, a lot of time will pass before works start. It was the same with Belgrade Waterfront, they (protesters) were throwing out those yellow ducks, organized demonstrations every day," Vucic said.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)