Student Ticket Candidate: The Battle Is Not Me against Vucic, but the People against Evil

Ilija Srdanovic (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

Ilija Srdanovic, who heads The Students Will Win electoral ticket in the Oct. 25 early parliamentary elections, is confident that Aleksandar Vucic's days in power are over and that after his recent resignation as president, he will not get another opportunity to return to the next office he wants -- that of prime minister.

Asked about Vucic's repeatedly inviting him to TV duels, even though he has been avoiding them easily, Srdanovic told the Danas daily that the mere fact that Vucic is simultaneously inviting someone to a debate and calling him a thug says enough about the consistency of the invitation. "He doesn't care about talking to me. He wants to portray me as the leader of the student ticket so everything can be made to look as a personal battle between the two of us," he said.

He also called this an "old tactic: reduce the movement to one man, then attack that man." This battle is not me against him, this battle is the people of Serbia against evil. The choice is between Serbia and the mafia," Srdanovic said.

According to him, the ticket of the university student protest movement stands for experts having the final say. "That is why I will respond when the subject is health care, because I can speak to it as someone who sees day in and day out how the system operates from the inside," said Srdanovic, who is a medical doctor.