Vucic Ahead of Protest Rally in Belgrade: Gov't in Serbia Won't Be Toppled on the Streets

Aleksandar Vucic, Belgrade, June 24 2024 (BETAPHOTO/Milan Obradovic)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said late on Aug. 8 that the "main objective" of the upcoming protest rally in Belgrade over lithium mining plans, scheduled for Aug. 10, was to bring down the government. In a public address posted on his Facebook page, Vucic said that "the government in Serbia will not be toppled on the streets," but rather would be chosen in elections.

"I want to tell everyone who has sent me messages of support after threats that I would be expelled across the Drina, Serbia is everything to me. I live for Serbia, I have fought for every victory in politics, economy, sports, culture. I am not even thinking about running, Serbia is the place where I was born and where I will die. I will never abandon it. No surrender," Vucic said in the video.

He also said that over the last 12 years, in different positions in government, he had been someone who had "to a considerable extent influenced events and policies" of the country, but that he had never sought excuses, rather he had "tried to find solutions."

Vucic added that the Aug. 10 protest rally had been announced over alleged concern for environmental protection even though, as he put it, very few knew what a lithium mine would look like and even though "there will be no digging for at least two more years."

Environmental organizations have announced a protest rally in Belgrade for Aug. 10 because the demand made at a rally held in Loznica in late June has not been met. At that rally, the authorities were given 40 days to pass a law preventing lithium mining and the opening of a Rio Tinto mine in the Jadar River valley. The deadline is Aug. 10.