Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he will not give up on the lithium mining project in the Jadar valley and offered to call a referendum on recalling him from office if the opposition MPs collect at least 70 signatures.
When asked by N1’s reporter whether the recall process is actually more complicated than he has portrayed, Vucic swiftly shifted the focus and accused N1 of deceiving the public by spreading false information about the environmental damage caused by lithium mining.
“Do you think I’m going to hold onto power at any cost?” Vucic asked. “Submit a petition, 70, 75, or 80 signatures, I’ll get you the rest and we’ll have a referendum to recall the president,” Vucic told reporters in Belgrade.
When the N1 reporter remarked that he had also mentioned a referendum on the president in June last year, and that it is actually the procedure to recall the president, which is more complex than he suggests, Vucic replied:
“One-third (of MPs/signatures) cannot decide whether the president will be recalled. You have the right to initiate a recall, but not a referendum. You need a two-thirds majority for that, and I am willing to help the opposition achieve that by asking my friend (Serbian Prime Minister) Milos Vucevic to get the Serbian Progressive Party MPs to support the recall process, which must go through a referendum with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, depending on the referendum question. Everything I have told you is in accordance with the Serbian Constitution, and we are ready to assist in any way. I have even told you what the deadlines are.”
Vucic last year also suggested that the Parliament remove him from office and also mentioned a referendum at which the citizens would vote on his presidency. However, legal experts clarified at the time that the Constitution does not allow for such a referendum.
In response to N1’s question about the procedure to recall the president, Vucic digressed and shifted the focus on lithium mining.
“Let’s not pretend to be naive. Neither you nor the owners of your media outlets in Serbia and the region are truly concerned about lithium. You’d love lithium more than anything in the world if it weren’t for Vucic. Since it is Vucic, don’t deceive the public—neither you nor anyone else. Tell them: ‘Yes, it’s Vucic,’ just as your journalists say, ‘It’s not Rio Tinto, get out of Serbia, it’s – Vucic, get out of Serbia,’” said the president.
“I have no intention of leaving Serbia and want to live here with all my children. You will never drive me away because I love Serbia more than anything in the world. Criticizing me every day will not make me love it any less. Since you know the real issue is not jadarite but Vucic, don’t pretend to be naive. Don’t mislead the good people who believe you when you say their lives will truly be at risk, that the Danube and Sava rivers will be poisoned, and all the other nonsense and lies I’ve been hearing for months. There is no liquid waste or sulfuric acid at 250 degrees that will poison everything, or anything like that. There is only solid waste, and we won’t even provide a landfill for it, as we are now imposing conditions for that as well,” Vucic said in response to N1’s question about the presidential recall procedure.
