Regime Official: Progressives Cannot Afford to Grow Complacent

Vladimir Djukanovic (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

On June 29, Vladimir Djukanovic – a member of the presidency of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party – called the regime’s June 27 Belgrade rally “a stake to the heart of the blockader movement” and claimed that, while “facing reality” must deeply pain the anti-regime front, the country’s authorities should by no means grow complacent.

In an op-ed for the Politika daily, Djukanovic stressed that “now is the time to double down on activity on the ground” and to right all errors and accept all the complaints “made by the well-meaning people who naively followed the blockaders, believing they were truly being led by some kind of pure-hearted and pure-souled university students.”

Said campaigning “is already heavily under way,” he explained, given that President Aleksandar Vucic “has thrown his closest associates into the fire, so that that, every so often, and particularly on weekends, they can be found sweating under tents while speaking with the people instead of frolicking and relaxing with their families in Mediterranean resorts.”

In fact, Djukanovic stated, “the June 27 rally is confirmation that the ruling party has woken up and that Vucic has begun hard-core work with the people.”