In times of trouble, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic seems to rely on familiar adversaries. After previously accusing secret services of orchestrating protests against Rio Tinto two years ago, Vucic now points to Dragan Solak as the main culprit behind the ongoing protests against lithium mining throughout Serbia.

It was only a matter of time before the discussion about lithium mining turned into a debate centered around the Serbian president. During a press conference on Thursday, Vucic suggested that he, personally, is under greater threat than the environment in the vicinity of Jadar.

„You find me bothersome. Ustasa, Siptar, thief, monkey, peder, all that… no need to intensify it. And it’s all ordered by one tycoon, a criminal, because I opposed his desire to run this country, and his name is Dragan Solak,“ Vucic stated.

Dragan Solak, co-owner of United Group, which includes media outlets despised by Vucic, and owner of the English football club Southampton, has been living outside Serbia for years. Despite this, he is allegedly able to mobilize people from Loznica, Kraljevo, Valjevo, Bogatic, Kosjeric, Ljig, Mladenovac, Pozega, and other cities across Serbia, commanding them to speak out against lithium mining and chant derogatory slogans at the president.

„This tycoon and criminal thinks he can and has the right to run this country and believes everyone must fear him, and everyone does. Except for one man. And I am proud to say that I am that man. And I am not afraid of his connections in the CIA, MIA, BIA, or whatever else you want,“ Vucic asserted.

Retired Faculty of Political Sciences professor Rade Veljanovski, in a statement to N1, reminded Vucic that media tycoons are actually around him.

„He forgets what the term ‘tycoon’ really means. If there is a tycoon-like relationship with the media, it can be primarily linked to other individuals, for example, Zeljko Mitrovic. Dragan Solak doesn’t have a national broadcast license for any television, whereas Zeljko Mitrovic does, and that is a significant difference. He owns, as he said himself, 70 channels, so where will you find greater tycoonism?“ Veljanovski noted.