Vucic: I am in favor of demarcation, criticism of media freedom unfounded

Vucic: Opposition rally meaningless without political platform, stage for insults instead

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he was in favor of the boundary with Kosovo, adding that such a solution is "absolutely the healthiest one for Serbia and the Serbs." In a statement to Nova TV he also said that a referendum on the matter will be called if he had something to propose to the people, but that such a proposal does not exist as yet.

"I am in favor of the demarcation and am not ashamed of that, but the Serbs are against, and I have understood their message. We are not ready to hear the truth about Kosovo even when everyone else knows it. The people won’t accept it because it involves their emotions," the president said.

Speaking about the upcoming session of the U.N. Security Council on the situation in Kosovo after the recent ROSU units’ incursion into the Serb-majority municipalities in its north, Vucic said that such a session is always important because of "the status issue", but that the gathering in Paris due to take place in early July under the auspices of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is "much more important." He added, however, that he is not sure that this meeting will be held at all.

The latest findings of the U.S. Freedom House NGO on the condition of media freedom in Serbia, according to the president, are "nothing new;" these are two articles written on the basis of the last year’s report, whose main targets are Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and U.S. President Donald Trump, Vucic added.

He dismissed the criticism of the condition of media freedom in Serbia. He described the outlets criticizing him as "not opposition, by tycoon-run… operating based on all state permits… I am guilty because I do not want to appear on N1 because I don’t know what to talk about with the people who are campaigning against me around the clock, albeit not having a single argument," the Serbian president said.

The main author of the Freedom House report, Sarah Repucci, told Voice of America that there has been "a noticeable decline in media freedom in the wake of Aleksandar Vucic’s coming to power, "which is" a reason for serious concern."