Vucic: Events in the Parliament Are Culmination of Opposition’s Violence

Alekasandar Vucic, Baku, Novemeber 12 2024 (Photo: PrintScreen rts.rs)

Late in the evening on Nov. 25, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that physical conflicts which had erupted between representatives of the ruling parties and the opposition in the Serbian Parliament earlier that day were only a culmination of what the opposition had been doing in the previous days, noting that the opposition’s goal was to prevent the parliament sitting on state budget from taking place.

Speaking to TV Pink, Vucic said the opposition had been trying to benefit from every tragedy, adding they had seen the tragedy at the Novi Sad Railway Station on Nov. 1 as “an opportunity to stage violence and do something for their own political position.”

The opposition was nervous for several reasons, Vucic said, adding that one could be potential “slashing of funding for non-governmental organizations” by billionaire and businessman Elon Musk, who would be tasked with reducing expenses of the US government bureaucracy in Donald Trump administration.  

Speaking about the action calling on all in Serbia to come to a standstill held on Nov. 22, when citizens and political activists at some locations stopped the traffic for 15 minutes to symbolically honor 15 victims of the Novi Sad tragedy, Vucic said it was harassment of other people, many of whom “could not reach their workplaces, girlfriends, hospitals, or wherever they were going to.”
 
Vucic also condemned blockades of the Old Bridge over the Sava River in Belgrade, noting it was unsafe for its interior structure made of wood.

“It is a true Nazi bridge, built to enable transit of German tanks across the river, it was not meant to last long, we need to have a new, prettier, modern, and fully safe bridge, while this one will be relocated,” he said.

Asked about Goran Vesic, the former construction, transport and infrastructure minister, who has been detained after tendering his resignation, Vucic said he never gave up on his friends and that he could not understand the decision to keep him in detention.

“He would not have fled anywhere, he would not have influenced witnesses, he cannot repeat the offense as he is no longer minister,” Vucic noted.

He also said that a trial for establishing accountability in the collapse of a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad Railway Station would not be an easy court proceeding, but added he hoped that justice would be served.