Zlatko Kokanovic: Scholz and von der Leyen Not Welcome If Lithium is the Reason for their Visit

Zlatko Kokanovic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/MO)

Zlatko Kokanovic, a representative of the association "Ne damo Jadar" (We Won't Give Up Jadar) said on July 15 that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, were not welcome in Serbia if the reason for their visit was the exploitation of mineral resources and the materialization of the "Jadar" project.

Kokanovic said in a comment for BETA that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic would be remembered as "the greatest traitor of the Serbian people" if he permitted the realization of the "Jadar" project and the exploitation of other mineral resources in Serbia.

"Scholz and von der Leyen have three times larger lithium deposits in Germany, which are also easier to exploit, using thermal waters and no tailings. The attack on Serbian lithium is literally an attempt at starting a third war. We know how the Germans treated the Serbs in the First and Second World Wars, and in this third war, they would finish us off, as an environmental disaster would force more than two million people to leave their homes in Western Serbia and the other parts where lithium mining is planned," Kokanovic has cautioned.

Savo Manojlovic, campaign director of the Get Going for Change movement, said in a post on X that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, should soon visit Serbia to meet with President Vucic, whose task, according to Manojlovic, was to grant unconstitutional lithium mining.

"The tasks for the authorities in Serbia to accomplish by the end of the year include the Spatial Plan for Loznica and the passage of the Feasibility Study. It completely undermines the legal order and democracy in the Republic of Serbia as the fundamental European values. This is a policy of stabilocracy – supporting the autocrats breaking laws but, like colonial errand boys, they would always fulfill their tasks, destroying their own country," Manojlovic wrote.