Vucic: Gathering outside Presidency building shows political nature of protests

BELGRADE - In a public address from the Presidency of Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic said some 600 people were making noise outside the building, showing that he had been right in saying that ongoing protests in the country were exclusively political in nature.

"And I thought those people were apolitical - at least that is what they kept telling me, and said that they did not engage in politics and were only interested in justice," Vucic said.

"But then you realise this is, in fact, not about blocking university faculties, but about politics," Vucic said, noting that he had succeeded in getting the leaders of opposition parties, "as well as those serving them in various movements and NGOs," to show their true faces.

He said all people arrested during protests in the wake of a deadly overhang collapse at the Novi Sad railway station last month had been released from detention and that all demands made by students who were blocking faculty buildings had been met despite being politically motivated.

Vucic also said he would not back a bill on foreign agents, tabled by Aleksandar Vulin's Movement of Socialists.

"For several reasons, we will not accept the bill tabled by the parliamentary group or MPs of our (coalition) partner Aleksandar Vulin, even though many people in the Serbian Progressive Party believe it contains elements taken from US, Western European and Russian legislation that could be accepted," he said.

"But my answer is no," Vucic added.

He said pressure groups aiming to topple the Serbian authorities had received 426 mln euros from abroad in the past four years.

"Some political parties are very nervous because major, fundamental changes are expected to happen in the world," he said.

"As I have heard - I might have heard it wrong but I am usually well-informed - (US President-elect) Donald Trump is preparing 200 acts he will enact a day or two after taking power. Once he does that, the entire system of the fake liberal world that has existed will collapse," Vucic said.

In that system, there were those who were "their servants, who are good and desirable, and everyone else is evil and bad," he added.