Vucic: Not a good time for early elections

Aleksandar Vučić
Tanjug/AP/Darko Vojinović

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that he does not think early elections are a good idea, despite reports that he hinted at running for prime minister a day earlier.

“In these hard times, we see that we can count only on ourselves”, Vucic told the pro-regime TV Pink.

His words came after the row in the ruling coalition between his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its smaller partner in the Government, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).

“We talked about Kosovo and Metohija, we tackled many important issues and the citizens saw that, who was serious and who was not. I was hoping that they will at least push the button (to vote) but they did not do even that”, said President Vucic.

He repeated his accusations against the opposition that they were eager to start riots and “all for the benefit of foreign services”. “Their plan was to spontaneously bring people together over something that I dis or did not say, but it failed”, said President Vucic.

Vucic also denied playing a major role in the talks in Brussels. “The Brussels Agreement was mentioned in the Assembly over 100 times, in a negative context and I was always to blame, not (SPS leader) Ivica Dacic who signed it. But, In politics, you always have some that are fighting and some that are hiding,” he added.

“I spoke to Ivica Dacic today and I will see him tomorrow to and talk. I do not think that elections are a wise idea at this moment. But do I trust the (the SPS)? Personally I don’t and neither did they trust us. We respect that political party but now we know, that in hard times, we can count only on us (SNS)”, Vucic said.