Vucic: My opinion of Kurti, Trajkovic, and Rasic remains the same

Today, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, received the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, who is on a two-day visit to Belgrade, stating that he introduced him "to our view of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija".

"I'm not crazy, drunk, or silly, because I only drink chamomile tea. This proves everything that has happened since the beginning of the year, and how any possibility of negotiations with Pristina has been gradually collapsing," Vucic added.

The president then repeated that everything he had said yesterday was what he had meant and that he confirmed the same words today, everything, he adds, that he had said about Kurti, Rasic, and Trajkovic.

"Since the beginning of the year, we have had a referendum, and they told us from Pristina that it was a state issue, and that we could not do it. We had never been denied this before, and we know that the Serbs live there. Then they told us from Quinta not to worry, that everything would be fine for the elections and that they would exert pressure. This is a democratic norm and a right. And when the elections came, they said that they had canceled 60,000 votes and that they would not be able to vote... And when we had won with more than a million votes, they issued a statement condemning the fact that the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities had not voted. That's when the situation started boiling," Vucic continued.

After that, Todosijevic was sentenced, adds Vucic, after which the illegal construction of bases of the Kosovo Special Police in the North, near Brnjak and Jarinje, began.

"Daily raids by ROSU units began, which they also have no right to do. Do you remember why we had a situation when the Hungarian General Kajari helped us? Every week we have a crisis. Then the story about identity cards was fabricated when they were supposed to introduce three-month visas. So they expected the Serbs to do something. Then they fabricated the price of license plates," the president continued.

At the moment when they did all this, they repeated every day "We will never form the CSM", and, adds Vucic, they also said that yesterday.

"Then, contrary to the constitutional law, they suspended Nenad Djuric, the police chief. What will happen next week? What will they fabricate next week? Then he wanted to insert his people into the assembly. And even that was not enough; they wanted to abolish the Serbian language. And since that didn't happen either, he said that he would then introduce them to the Government. You can introduce all the worst that you can imagine, from the very bottom. My question is: "Why are you lying that they are representatives of the Serbs?" Representatives of the Serbs are those who got all those votes," Vucic says.

Vucic added that he hoped that the statement of the European Union would be louder today.

"Ana told me last night that people from the EU thought that it was very important for Serbia to be represented in Tirana at the Summit. I am ready to listen. Ana and the people around her think we should be in Tirana. I told Varhelyi that it was not a matter of my statement and vanity. It's not a problem for me to consider that decision, to cancel my decision if there is a chance to say something. Ana and Oliver's position is that we should be present, we'll see, we'll make a decision," the president says.

Vucic says that "Pristina is excessively attacking everything related to Serbia, and those events will cause riots, and in which they will act as victims, and that is impossible to bear, he adds."

After nine months, it could be seen that Pristina had lied about everything, from the first moment, said Vucic, repeating that he still wondered what was next.

"Thanks to the EU for the financial assistance"

After the contracts had been signed, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, addressed the audience, emphasizing that he had had open and very good talks with a sincere friend of Serbia, Oliver Varhelyi.

"We discussed all important topics, and we will continue after the conference. We have always shown respect for any kind of support, especially financial, educational, and everything else. Accordingly, I am especially happy about the framework agreement for financial support in the period from 2021- 2027," Vucic said.

The President then expressed his gratitude to Ursula von der Leyen for the EU's financial aid of 165 million euros, which was a significant amount of money for Serbia.

"I express my gratitude to Varhelyi, to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. We spend no less than 200 million euros on gas, every month at combined prices, and only on the import of electricity between 42 million euros, and as it is expected we will spend up to 100 million euros in December," says Vucic.

As he stated, the talks had been also about diversification, where he had referred the commissioner to the possibility of Serbia acquiring additional amounts of electricity from Azerbaijan.

"We talked about interconnectors between Serbia and North Macedonia, about projects such as the Belgrade-Nis high-speed railway, and many other projects with the EU," Vucic added, then continued.

"What is also important for us is the discussion about the rule of law, on which we work with the Prime Minister in this fight for what we fought for in the referendum. I hope that the EU will accept and approve all of this. We talked about foreign political topics, I also received criticism from Varhelyi. He told me this as a friend... he said that no one could circumvent sanctions through the territory of Serbia, because we were not criminals, nor did we want to make money from other people's suffering, we had a good economy and finances. With this kind of help from the EU, we have nothing to worry about," the president said.