Vucic: Global power-wielders want to finish all dirty work in Serbia

BELGRADE - Commenting on opposition protests in the country, President of Serbia and Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Presidency member Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday evening global power-wielders needed to finish all their dirty work in Serbia for three reasons: because they wanted to finish everything regarding Kosovo-Metohija, because they could not stand Serbia being the leading regional power and because he and Serbia had opposed the passage of a UN resolution on Srebrenica.

"Why do you think the bigger power-wielders - the ones who are not from the region - need to finish that dirty work now? They need that for at least three reasons. The first reason is that they are trying to finish everything regarding 'Kosovo' as soon as possible, but they see that, as long as I am president and as long as this government is in office, we will never recognise 'Kosovo' as independent at any cost," Vucic said at an SNS conference for young people.

The global power-wielders do not need this because they love Albanians and hate the Serbs, but because of Russian President Vladimir Putin and because they do not want him to be able to invoke the so-called "Kosovo precedent" when he talks about the Kherson, Zaporozhie, Donetsk and Lugansk regions and the Crimea, he said.

The second reason is that they cannot stand Serbia being the leading regional power after being "in third or fourth place" in 2012, Vucic said.

He added that the opposition to the passage of the Srebrenica resolution was the third reason.

"They made a decision to commemorate a Srebrenica genocide day. We opposed, and that is when everyone told me: 'They will never forget this.' Because I was leading a courageous struggle, a struggle by the brave countries of the world, to oppose those who are the most powerful, from Germany to the Americans. I knew that the price for me personally and for all those who opposed them will be high," Vucic said.