Brnabic: I put Rio Tinto on hold over protests foreigners financed to weaken Vucic

Brnabic told the pro-government Happy TV that those fighting against Rio Tinto are also working for someone else’s interests rather than for the interests of their own country, and that the protests were financed by “foreigners” from the countries this company comes from.

The Prime Minister said Rio Tinto is a “Western project,” i.e. an American-Australian-Canadian-British company, and that the “foreigners” from these countries are the ones behind last year’s protests organized against this company.

The protests were a “political game” against Aleksandar Vucic, to weaken him, yet have him “push the project through,” said Brnabic, adding that, when it comes to this project, they wanted to “have the cake and eat it too.”

She said things have changed since last year, and that she still thinks this is “an excellent project for Serbia,” and that “there is nothing secret about” the negotiations between the Serbian Government and the Rio Tinto company.

“It is on the future government to decide if it will do something in this sense. I hope they will, those political games cannot be played now like they were back then,” said Brnabic.