Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said the authorities met all demands that people who blocked the country had regarding the two controversial laws and that new protests requesting the state to terminate all contracts with Rio Tinto mining company were an opposition political game.

Several environmentalist organisations organised roadblocks across Serbia on Monday after Vucic said the Anglo-Australian company’s ‘Jadar Project’ of lithium mining in the country’s west would remain.
„No changes, no new activities by Rio Tinto will happen in the future before we discuss it. When? That’s in the long-run since we still haven’t got any (environmental) studies yet,“ Vucic told reporters at a military barracks in the northern town of Pancevo where an anti-tank system ‘Cornet,“ a Russian man-portable anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) was presented.

He said he couldn’t see sense in new protests „today, or in a month or six months.“

„I don’t mind anything that does not endanger people’s safety. Nothing irritates more than when you are denied free movement and Constitutional rights,“ Vucic said, alluding at roadblocks. He added he didn’t mind the protest in a political sense either.

Vucic said he had information about a young man from Croatia’s Split city who went missing on New Years’ Eve in Belgrade but added that the police would inform the public about the details. „Essentially, we don’t have a solution yet,“ he told reporters.