Vucic: The most dangerous part of the European plan foresees that Serbia does not oppose Kosovo's membership in international organizations

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said that he had come to the Assembly today to tell the citizens what lay ahead for the Serbs as a nation and what Serbia was facing.

At the beginning of the special session of the National Assembly dedicated to Kosovo, Vucic said that the purpose of today's meeting was not to transfer responsibility to the parliament or the people as a whole.

"I have never shied away from responsibility as president. I made the most difficult decisions. Except in one case, it seems to me that they were in the best interest of the Serbs and citizens of Serbia. The purpose of today is to appear before you and the citizens of Serbia as a representative of all our citizens and to share honestly, openly, and in the fairest way what lies ahead for us as a nation, what we are facing," he emphasized.

Vucic said that today he was not here to fight in any election campaigns, but to fight, as in the previous 11 years, for Serbia with equal, if not more strength and heart, especially when he saw how and in what way he had been welcomed in the assembly.

"Today I come from a sense of duty to tell the citizens what is happening so that they can assess for themselves the consequences of our actions and what we are fighting for. I will speak and point out all the worst items of the so-called Franco-German initiative. I will not talk about the most beautiful, but the worst and most difficult for Serbia," he underlined.

Vucic said that he wanted to be responsible and respectful towards the citizens so that they knew that the government, the president, and the assembly had nothing to hide from them.

"There will be time for conclusions and decisions, but it is important that people know what we are facing," he emphasized.

More important than anything else, even than the plan, is to understand the moment in which everything happens

Vucic pointed out that there were many questions about Kosovo, which had lasted for more than 600 years, and few answers - how big was Kosovo and where was its beginning and end; when had we won and when had we lost; had the myth become reality or had the reality turned into myth; where was the way out, if not in Kosovo itself, and who should provide the answers to those questions.

He reminded that in 1871, the Serbs had made up 64 percent of the population in the area that was today considered Kosovo, and only 50 years later, significantly less, and that the situation had somewhat been better after the Second World War until the exodus had begun in 1991.

"Have we thought about what we have done, whether Kosovo has become the target of political bribery and nothing more? For me, Kosovo is more than that," Vucic said.

He pointed out that it was more important than anything, including the Franco-German plan - the circumstances, the moment, the political momentum, the time frame in which everything was happening, but people pretended to be naive as if they did not understand what moment we were living in, and what it was all about. because it was easier to forgive yourself for everything and nothing to others.

He noticed that today we were all witnessing a kind of a Third World War, which would only be more voluminous, wider, and more difficult than today, and it was a situation in which the little ones could not have as much freedom as they would like to; have space to sigh and live, and to make decisions.

"We are one of the few countries that makes decisions freely and independently, to the extent that it is not limited by brutal consequences for survival, and more so than bigger and richer countries. I am proud of that," the President of Serbia said.

That's why, he says, everyone must understand that today in Serbia you can hear what both sides think about the war, while in the world there is complete censorship, and there is only one good and one bad side.

"When you are small, you cannot have your own attitude, nor be neutral, switch off, be silent or hide under a rock. They don't allow you, because when they can't torture the big ones so they have to torture the smaller ones," Vucic said.

He noticed that it was an eternal dilemma - to side with the stronger or to always oppose, which could be seen even today in opposing positions in public opinion and two exclusive petitions - one to say no to talks, while not accepting anything, and the other to accept everything.

"I will draw a different conclusion in relation to both," Vucic added.

Every minute we spend not solving the problem is a new minute of fear for every child in Klokot or Suvi Do

Then, Vucic recalls, the Serbs stood up on the barricades because they tried to make their voice heard, their cry to explain why they did it, adding that part of the Western world heard them and that those across the ocean heard them a little bit more than Europe did.

"I was with those people because they couldn't bear the cruelty and they didn't know what to do with themselves, but in all the dispatches, acts, conversations in Brussels, Berlin, for everyone Serbia and Vucic erected barricades and they wanted to attack independent and sovereign Kosovo - so Serbia must answer," the Serbian president said.

This, he says, was used by the Pristina regime in its desire to create a conflict, in order to show that Serbia is an evil that must be put to an end and that it must be ended as a whole, and that the Serbs should be expelled.

Vucic admitted that his most difficult meeting had been in Raska with the representatives of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, who had been determined not to move from the barricades.

"I literally begged them to give up, because their lives are more important to us," Vucic said.

He added that now for the first time, we had formal guarantees about the arrival of special police units in the north of Kosovo, as well as that they would not persecute people who had participated in the barricades and opposed the arbitrariness of Pristina.

"I asked them to move away from the barricades, not because I had felt threatened, but because I had wanted to save their lives. Although most of them are not happy about it, I think it was good for them, to keep them out of conflict. It's never too late for a conflict, but let's try to save people," the President of Serbia said.

He explained that after the Ukrainian offensive and the Russian counter-offensive in the conflict in Ukraine, it became clear that there was no easy solution to that problem, which he himself had felt at the Summit in Tirana, where he had been exposed to fierce attacks for not introducing sanctions against Russia.

He stated that in September, the Franco-German initiative had been obtained for the first time, and then on December 4, a somewhat modified paper, which on December 13 had become an informal framework and part of the negotiating framework for Serbia within the framework of EU accession.

Belgrade, he says, sent its "non-paper" back in September and everything it agrees with and doesn't agree with, and everything necessary for the normalization of relations, because we want and it's important to have good relations with the Albanians.

"Then on January 20, representatives of the most powerful countries came to Belgrade. And despite everything we submitted, they told me - 'we hope you understand, we are determined to solve these problems'. They are all at war, they have problems even though they won't say it, and they don't want to allow another escalation. I said that I had understood that and that's why I had been anxiously waiting for that meeting,"  Vucic said.

"In the third sentence, they said - Mr. President, if you did not accept the work on this initiative and its implementation, you would be faced with the suspension of accession negotiations with the EU, not only with the interruption of further investments from the Western world but also with the withdrawal of all new investments and with other comprehensive measures that had to show what could happen to those who were not in agreement with the EU. They repeated that on two more occasions," Vucic pointed out.

He added that he had called it a threat in the conversation and fought hard for Serbia.

He was, he says, faced with a dilemma - because there was no time and they asked him to declare himself immediately, to which he replied that Belgrade had been restrained relating to the key issue, which had been the only possible solution, which had not been against the vital interests of Serbia.

He recalled all the attacks on the Serbs during January of this year, stressing that, bearing in mind that harsh reality, there was nothing more important than trying to preserve peace.

"Every minute we spend not solving the problem, believing that it will solve itself, is a new minute of fear for every child in Klokot or Suvi Do," Vucic said.

We are in a difficult and delicate moment

"We are in a difficult and delicate moment. On the one hand, we have to help our people in Kosovo and Metohija, on the other hand, to avoid condemnation and punishment, and on the third hand, to take care of vital and national interests," the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic pointed out today, in an address to parliamentarians.

He pointed out that there were many difficult things for us in the Franco-German proposal, adding that 90 percent of what had reached the public was correct and that the plan had been released to the public by the Pristina apartments in order to cause hysteria and present themselves as good guys, and that the Serbs were to blame for everything.

He stated that there was perhaps only one thing good for Serbia in the plan, in the preamble in which it was stated - "starting from historical facts and not calling into question different points of view on fundamental issues, including the issue of status."

"And that's the only thing, but everything after that derogates even the preamble to which we might be able to refer," Vucic said.

It is further stated that "both sides will be guided by UN principles, especially those related to the sovereign independence of states and respect for territorial integrity", considering Kosovo, of course, as an independent state, Vucic stated.

Speaking about the Franco-German proposal, he said that the most dangerous item was item 4, that is, its second position, in which it was written that Serbia would not oppose Kosovo's membership in any international organization.

"Whether they oppose it or not, when they decide they will have a majority in the Council of Europe whether they decide or not they will introduce Kosovo into NATO, and membership in the EU is their decision. I heard that they cannot join NATO. Are you going to prevent them from being accepted into NATO?" Vucic pointed out.

He underlined that when he had read it, he immediately had known that Serbia had been faced with a choice.

"It was agreed to move forward with what was an obligation from the Brussels Agreement, which was the CSM. As you can see, the Albanians do not want that. The CSM cannot be a model of a non-governmental organization, it must be what was signed in Brussels, and the first basic agreement was signed, which talks about the constitution and functioning of the CSM, we have an implementation agreement, principles, and 22 with significant powers. The CSM is also very important for our people south of the Ibar, where about 52 percent of the Serbian population lives, while in the north it is 48 percent. We have a management team agreement. Four agreements have been accepted and signed by Hashim Thaci, Isa Mustafa, and European negotiators," he explained.

Vucic said that there was nothing more to discuss because these were accepted agreements.

He is worried, he says, that they will try to negotiate again in order to reduce the competencies of the CSM and that this will be the cause and reason for new problems.

After the establishment of the CSM, the situation with the police in the north would be different, with the safety of the Serbs, because they will not return to the institutions before their formation.

He said that Serbia was in favor of deepening cooperation and relations in many areas, from the economy to the issue of displaced persons, and that there were also agreements that spoke in favor of that.

He pointed out that there were some good things, namely the provision of direct financial assistance from Serbia to the people of Kosovo, as well as direct channels of communication with the Serbian community.

Vucic said that he had come to the Assembly to say what would happen in the following period before he came to the parliament again.

He reminded that he was the only president of Serbia who had come to the Assembly, and nevertheless four times, to discuss Kosovo with the MPs.