Opposition leader: Serbia’s regime brought crime, corruption to absurd level

Vuk Jeremić
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Vuk Jeremic, the leader of Serbia's opposition People's Party, said on Tuesday that the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) brought crime and corruption to an absurd level during nine years in power.

In an interview with the independent Danas daily, Jeremic said, „despite all the problems, Serbia (until 2012 when SNS came to power) was on its European path, only to become „a kleptocratic dictatorship in which all values have been severely devalued.“

He added that at the start of the 10th year of the SNS’ rule, „former and active mobsters came to the centre of social life as the most influential and richest people in Serbia.“

„The authorities whose mandate started with promises to fight corruption and organised crime in the country, in nine years brought the crime and corruption to absurd proportions, not heard of anywhere in Europe,“ Jeremic said.

He added the main infrastructure projects were realised without public calls, the state companies were destroyed, the agricultural land was sold to foreigners and local tycoons for peanuts, drugs were produced on plants near the capital under the direct protection of people from state security services…

Jeremic said that „all of that is financed by dizzying external borrowing. The state debt doubled in the meantime, reaching an astronomic sum of 30 billion euros,“ he added.

Jeremic said, „the democracy and human rights dramatically regressed in Serbia, what has been noticed in all international reports. Except the head of state, all institutions become meaningless, and almost all important media are under the regime’s control.“

„Political opponents are declared the enemies of the people and the state and are exposed to unscrupulous demonisation, which directly imperils their and their families safety,“ Jeremic said.