Vucic: Provide Evidence of Illegal Elements in Arms Trade

Vucic press conference (BETA/Milos Miskov)

Exports of arms to Saudi Arabia was legal and I would advocate as many as possible shipments of arms, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sept. 20 in a program on TV Pink.

Commenting on the speculations that the trade in arms bought at preferential prices involved Branko Stefanovic, the father of Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, Vucic called on those spreading such allegations to provide evidence, or otherwise stop talking.

As regards the next elections in Serbia, Vucic noted that election conditions in Serbia today were much better than in 2012, with the electoral role more kept up-to-date and easier access of opposition parties to media outlets than in 2012.

Vucic further said he would endorse all the opposition demands, renew the electoral register and regulate the funding of political parties as he believed that his Serbian Progressive Party could win the next vote owing to its performance, wages paid to employees and new roads built in Serbia.

He encouraged state public broadcaster RTS to give as much as possible media coverage to opposition leaders so that the viewers could see themselves how they act hatefully toward him and to hear their ideas for a solution to the Kosovo issue.

Vucic said that Serbia was facing “an extremely difficult autumn’ in regard to the Kosovo issue.

Commenting on Pristina’s decision to allow only voters holding IDs issued in Kosovo to cast ballots in the upcoming early elections in Kosovo called for Oct. 6, Vucic said that the essence of such policy was to deprive Belgrade of having a say in any matter and to erase some 3,500-4,000 votes that the political party Serb List would otherwise collect.  

Vucic also accused the opposition Alliance for Serbia representatives of standing behind the blockade of the Rector’s Office building in Belgrade, where a number of students had locked themselves for a few days now, demanding dismissal of Finance Minister Sinisa Mali over his faked PhD degree.

While Vucic was on TV Pink, a video was played showing Branko Miljus, an official of the Party of Freedom and Justice, entering the Rector’s Office building with bags full of food and drinks.

Asked whether it meant that the party was behind the protest, Vucic replied: “It should be a big secret.”

“All of them are activists of the parties of (Dragan) Djilas and (Vuk) Jeremic,” Vucic.

He cited the ‘valid’ student organizations as saying that the building had not been blocked by students and that they did not approve of the blockade.  

Vucic stressed that they could not interfere in the government work and that Mali had been appointed by the Serbian parliament and did not have to hold a university degree, but only an elementary school diploma.