Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated today that he hopes that during Saturday’s protest in Belgrade, organized by students in blockade, the state will not have to “show force due to someone’s violence.”
Regarding the arrest of several individuals for allegedly planning violence during Saturday’s protest, Vučić said that it is “important that state authorities preventively do everything necessary to prevent more severe forms of violence.”
“Everything, in the end, boils down to violence: whether they will break into the park to beat real students, to occupy state institutions, to demolish EXPO. I hope we won’t have to intervene and show state force because of someone’s violence. We have managed to avoid that so far, and then there will be plenty of time for accountability for all those who committed crimes against Serbia,” Vučić told reporters in Belgrade after participating in the International Student Forum “Freedom and Sovereignty of Peoples in the 21st Century.”
He assessed that “all of Serbia” watched the special program on several pro-government television stations last night, which showed recordings of conversations mentioning intrusions into certain media outlets and state institutions.
“I think it’s clear to people now that violence is their ultimate outcome, that it has nothing to do with justice and what was demanded after November 1. Look at Austria and the case in Graz where you have direct state responsibility, but no one took to the streets. In Croatia, nine people were killed, and nothing happened to anyone. Only here is it financed from abroad,” the president said.
He rejected claims that a pistol with a erased serial number was “planted” on the detained vice-president of the New Face of Serbia party, Ivan Matović from Kraljevo.
“Did the police officers come and plant a pistol? That is so pathetic and sad. They never dreamed they would find that. They came to detain him because of everything else that was recorded,” Vučić said.
He added that such weapons are used “only for liquidations and the commission of the most serious criminal offenses.”
“I know there are many concerned people, but we will do our job. People should not worry, except those who intend to incite violence. In their place, I would worry a lot,” the president said.
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Source: Danas; Photo: ATA Images