Djilas: Lithium in No Way Serbian ‘Oil’

Dragan Djilas (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Dragan Djilas, the head of the oppositional Freedom and Justice Party, stated on July 15 that lithium is not and cannot be Serbia’s equivalent to oil.

“Countries that have oil mostly extract in the desert or the sea, like Norway, dozens of miles from shore. And, in most of those instances, the owner of said oil is the state, not some Rio Tinto. Furthermore, the oil companies extracting the oil pay enormous taxes. In Norway, for example, the oil company pays a 72-percent tariff. In [Serbia], it’s five percent. So stop telling fairytales,” Djilas told Zrenjanin’s KTV in a statement subsequently released by his party as well.

The politician further stated that Finance Minister Sinisa Mali claims that lithium mining will lead to a 16-percent increase in the country’s GDP. “They also said that 200,000 people will work at the Belgrade Waterfront, yet so far the number has never exceeded 3,000; and that the project will boost Serbia’s GDP by 3-4 percent, which has not happened either,” Djilas concluded.

 According to him, the regime is only causing problems, which in turn deepen the country’s political and economic crisis – a situation he believes will eventually result in snap elections.

“When those elections happen, then we’ll talk about how we’ll enter them and under what conditions. I still believe that a unified opposition is far stronger than when running independently. Right now, the opposition collaborating on improving the voting system is possible, but my colleagues should really consider not going to any more meetings of Ana Brnabic’s working group,” Djilas said.