Vucic: Teachers don’t want general strike

“There will be no full work stoppage. There won’t be even if we have to replace every school principal in Serbia, even if we dismiss or fire everyone because that is against the law,” Vucic said and accused the teachers of preferring “blockades while getting full pay”.

Teachers in schools across Serbia have been shortening their classes from 45 to 30 minutes, a form of strike allowed under the law, demanding better working conditions and pay raises.

According to Vucic, school teacher and university professors don’t want a general strike because “this is best for them… they’re doing nothing but going on TV, trashing the authorities and getting full salaries”.

He claimed to have accepted all the demands made by striking teachers and that their representatives agreed to his proposals and then reneged, showing “that someone else is directing them”.

He said that university exams, which have been postponed because of the protests, will have to be held at some point. “There won’t be – no exams. It’s their affair. “We won’t beat students, we won’t break into universities like Tito did ,” Vucic said, alluding to the Belgrade University student protests of 1968 demanding social changes.