VUČIĆ: SERBIA HAS LOST ITS STABILITY IN 17 DAYS

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 11 /SRNA/ - Aleksandar Vučić, who headed the "United Serbia" electoral list, said on Wednesday that in just 17 days Serbia had lost what it had been known for: stability, which he said had been the cornerstone and pillar of the country's development.

Vučić said the Student List was in no hurry to form a government but had already set up governing bodies in full and was "dictating and governing from the park."

"Their governing bodies are not institutions. Their governing bodies are terror, beatings, persecution, harassment, abuse of prosecutors and abuse of an almost non-existent police," Vučić told a news conference at the premises of the Serbian Progressive Party /SNS/.

He said he was speaking as a man who had built bridges, "and now someone is tearing it all down," adding that "frivolous and irresponsible people have got their hands on the state and are slowly dismantling it".

Referring to the demand for personnel files on employees of the public broadcaster RTS, Vučić said it was humiliating and noted that not even the Nazi Gestapo had demanded files on Radio Belgrade employees during World War Two.

Vučić warned that the Student List had launched the biggest campaign ever against China and said they would do great damage if they continued.

"Please don't saw off the branch we are sitting on. I will support you. They have done terrible damage with their statements on the Bor mine and their criticism of the free trade agreement with China," Vučić said.

He said the SNS would nominate scientist Stojan Radenović for speaker of the Serbian parliament, and predicted that the Student List would drag out the formation of the Serbian government.

"They have at least 110 days in which they don't have to form a government, and they have full power in their hands, which suits them, because why would they need a government when they have nothing to show the people," Vučić said.

He listed some of the physical attacks on SNS activists across Serbia, the destruction of party property, as well as attacks on private property, threats against activists' children, and incursions into local institutions and threats in the period since the election. More than 500 people had been extorted, he said, and not a single attacker had been arrested or prosecuted.

Unemployment, which had fallen to a historic low, would be incomparably higher in a year's time, Vučić said, adding that the measures planned by the new authorities would deindustrialize Serbia.

"Everything in the country is unstable, but there is one thing that is stable, and that is the SNS, our list and our leadership. We will bring stability to the country. We will try to save our country, because it is on a very bad path today," Vučić said.