Serbia’s PM: N1 fabricates scandals, leads campaign against booster dose

"If I believed everything I watch, listen to and read in the tycoon media, I would also think that the third dose of the vaccine is not safe, nor is it necessary. And that is not true. And it costs people's lives," Brnabic told a news conference when an N1 reporter asked her if she was proud of the ministers linked to numerous scandals that did not get an epilogue before the respective authorities.

Brnabic then accused N1 of fabricating scandals and working against promoting the third dose of the vaccine.

"I will not answer that because you are constantly fabricating scandals, and you expect me to answer nonsense. Those things are not true. If there were, we have respective institutions, independent and free to do their job under this Government and the previous one led by (now President) Aleksandar Vucic. If it were proven that any of the affairs you mentioned and fabricated was true, those people would no longer be in the Government. I am satisfied with my team because if we didn't have a team, we wouldn't have results," Brnabic said, speaking of the first year of her cabinet's work.

She reiterated that the Government had shown there were no protected persons by arresting the former state secretary in the Interior Ministry, the heads of Belgrade's Grocka and Palilula municipalities, and the conviction of the former director of the Railway Infrastructure.

Brnabic denied her appeals to citizens to vaccinate did not bear fruit.

"It is not true the appeals did not have results. They did not give me the one I hoped for, which is 80 percent. But, we have more and more vaccinated. We have crossed three million and now we are at about 56 percent of those vaccinated, which is better than anywhere in the region. It helps that we don't have as many people in hospitals as we had when there were fewer people infected," she said.

Speaking about ignoring the views of the medical part of the Crisis Response Team, which called for stricter measures in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic, Brnabic said the Team should take into account not only health and the health system but also how they lived, worked and whether they would have anything to eat after the pandemic.

"If we close everything and investors leave, people will die from something other than just the virus. We also have to worry about whether we will have the money to buy medicines, vaccines, protective equipment, increase the salaries of health workers and take care of the nation's mental health. Because we have a huge increase in violence, anxiety, and depression, we must find the best balance to preserve the health system, the nation's mental health and the economy. It is also the role of the Crisis Response Team," Brnabic said.