Serbian National Assembly President Ana Brnabic comments on developments concerning Generalstab project

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President of the National Assembly of Serbia Ana Brnabic said today that the end of the Generalstab project is an economic and institutional blow to Serbia and added that irreparable and long-lasting damage has been done to the country.

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Generalstab is the former General Staff building in central Belgrade that was bombed by NATO in 1999 and was supposed to be replaced by a complex of buildings.

Brnabic told TV Pink that by driving away this investment, the "blockaders" (anti-government protesters) also drove away jobs from Serbia and asked the prosecutors from the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime what organized crime happened in the Generalstab case.

"Okay, you won, Serbia lost, that's why you have Aleksandar Vucic and you have our Serbian Progressive Party, we will fight on, we will fight for Serbia to continue to grow stronger, for new investments, despite everything and the blockaders from the prosecution," said Brnabic.

She added that the "blockaders" from the prosecutor's office are under obligation to provide answers to the public and assessed that they chased away an investor from Serbia to Albania. When asked when a set of amendments to judicial laws will be on the agenda of the National Assembly, Brnabic said that it is being worked on and is expected to make it to the agenda soon.

Commenting on President Aleksandar Vucic announcing that he will not participate in a EU-Western Balkans summit for the first time because he believes that he must protect Serbia's interests, Brnabic assessed that with that message, Vucic wanted to say that Serbia remains on the EU path, but that he has zero tolerance towards all those in the country and abroad who want to weaken, hurt and humiliate Serbia.

Brnabic pointed out that there is nothing that Serbia has failed to do in the past year regarding relations with the EU and stressed that various EU institutions know how much Serbia has fought and tried. When the interviewer said that during one of the previous summits in which she participated, Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama was "insulting in a primitive way" Brnabic pointed out that Rama is fighting for his interests, while that behavior says more about Edi Rama than it does about Serbia.

"Everything is allowed as far as they're concerned. It speaks more about Rama than about us. There was a whole spectrum of organizations from here that went over to criticize Serbia. And to ask me questions. Those from the European Union did not have enough space and time to criticize me and ask me questions because of all those who came from Serbia, to criticize me and ask me questions there," said Brnabic.

She also wondered if anyone from Albania had gone (to the summit) to ask Rama what a free election looks like in Albania.

"It looks like a pretty big man waiting for you at the polling station, telling you to come inside. He goes with you behind the screen to check whether you made the right decision and voted freely - as required. Then he escorts you to the ballot box for you to drop the ballot paper in. And so they wait for one (voter), then another, then a fifth, and so on at that polling station. And there are videos of this. And everyone in the European Union knows it. Everyone. And of course everyone in Albania knows it," said Brnabic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)