Serbia’s Vucic promises to hold the country’s biggest rally

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced to hold the country’s biggest political rally a day before his party takes “big and important decisions”.

A week after two mass shootings shook Serbia, Vučić criticised the protests held by the opposition but announced a huge rally at the end of May in Belgrade.

“The sorrow and pain in Serbia do not go away; the mourning of lost children and people, wonderful and not guilty of anything. After this heavy blow, we had to take action and collect 3,000 weapons within a single day. We have shown that we will be able to fight for peace, to save human lives and change a lot of things”, Vučić said.

The government is ready to discuss any topic, the president said in reaction to the protests organised by the opposition that notably called for the internal affairs minister to resign and to ban the broadcasting – radio and TV – of content that promotes violence.

“The tragedy was brutally misused for political gatherings, with the only intention of violently gaining power. We are ready to discuss any topic, media, reality shows, police, resignations of officials, in our national parliament,” Vučić said.

“But none of that is or will be, enough. The only goal is to take power and put Serbia in the way of chaos and instability. Therefore, we have agreed to invite all Serbian citizens to the biggest gathering ever held in our country,” Vučić said.

The gathering will be on 26 May, “a day before big and important decisions for Serbia”. Vučić’s Serbian progressive party (SNS) will have its own meeting the day after, on 27 May.

Speaking to PRVA TV, Defence Minister and SNS Vice President Miloš Vučević said the possibility of the whole government resigning cannot be excluded but noted that this was more a question for Prime Minister Ana Brnabić.

Vučević also did not exclude the possibility of elections.

Commenting on the education minister’s resignation, Vučević said keeping tabs on every minister’s work will be necessary.

“Let us see if someone kept quiet when it was not convenient or did something alone. A reconstruction of the government is possible, elections also, but it is difficult to try and foresee such things,” Vučević said.

(EURACTIV.rs | Bojana Zimonjić Jelisavac)