Brnabic: Sinisa Mali Will Remain Minister, Students Are Political Activists

Ana Brnabic (Beta/Government of Serbia /Slobodan Miljevic)

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Sept. 23 that she did not expect Finance Minister Sinisa Mali to resign from office, as demanded by the students who have blocked the Belgrade University Rectorate, and that for her there was no question as to whether he would remain a minister.

Speaking at a press conference on new tax incentives, Brnabic said that what was currently going on at the Rectorate was "a disgrace for the Belgrade University, i.e. a sad political show whose end is not in sight."

The PM underscored that she did not know what the specific demands were of that group of 15 to 20 students who were, as she called them, political activists, and invited them to hand her their demands, which she was ready to decide on immediately.

Brnabic added that she could not and would not interfere in the university's autonomy and appealed to the students blocking the Rectorate to enable fellow students to get the services they needed and professors to continue their activities.

In her opinion, Belgrade University Rector Ivanka Popovic is making contradictory statements about the events in the Rectorate and the students' demands.

Brnabic explained that the rector believed a group of Serbian Progressive Party activists had entered the Rectorate, but she said nothing when representatives of other political groups, such as the One Out of the Five Million movement and the Alliance for Serbia, had entered the building and expressed their support to the students.