Stefanovic: Movement for the People and the State is Vucic's Attempt to Get Rid of the Serbian Progressive Party

Borko Stefanovic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

A deputy to the president of the Freedom and Justice Party, Borko Stefanovic, said on March 24 that the formation of a Movement for the People and the State was an attempt by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to "get rid of" the Serbian Progressive Party.

"He is aware, just as he was before when he abandoned the Serbian Radical Party, that the Progressive Party no longer brings him any support, because he and the people around him, together with that party, have brought Serbia into a catastrophic situation, ravaged the country with corruption and violence," Stefanovic said in a comment for BETA.

The opposition politician has cautioned that President Vucic is trying for the second time in his political career to "put on a new guise" and create a movement that would "camouflage the Progressives’ ugly past."

"I think this deception will not succeed, and I believe it is completely clear that no matter what packaging you put a bad product in, the citizens can see that the actual content of that product is violence, corruption, and the general ruin of Serbia, which they have orchestrated for a full 13 years," Stefanovic said.

The meeting of a committee to initiate the Movement was held on March 23, and aside from Vucic, the new body includes several members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, several full professors, and the president of the Association of Albanians in Serbia, Demo Berisha.