PM tells Serbians to "keep their head up"

PM tells Serbians to "keep their head up"

"My message to citizens of Serbia is 'keep your head up', no matter how hard it was for us, I personally did not get a wink of sleep. We lost nothing yesterday at the session of the Executive Board, those who rushed it have lost, who were trying to show us how great their power and strength is."

"We showed that we fought for the interests of the country and our people honorably and in a responsible manner and we got very big support. For them - unexpectedly big support. As you can see, we have succeeded both in some countries not voting for Kosovo's membership in UNESCO, and in fewer countries than expected voting in favor," said the prime minister.

He stressed that "Serbia and its government will continue to fight":

"I said 'keep your head up'. Because Serbia is facing a bright future and only we can be the ones to take something away from ourselves, and that's the last thing we'll do!"

Vucic also said he was grateful to those countries and their highest representatives who acted in a principled manner after the conversations he has had with them on this issue.

He cited Papua New Guinea as an example, which first withdrew its signature as a co-sponsor of the initiative, and abstained from voting.

"At the General Conference of UNESCO we will fight on," the prime minister said and added that "while it is important, it is not most important whether we win or lose."

"Our Serb churches and our Serb monasteries no one can take away. Nobody can take away the right to be better and more successful than anyone else in the region in the future. You know we're going to occupy such a position," said he, and pointed out that "because of that we should not carry out a campaign against anyone, not even against the Macedonia and Montenegro, which recognized Kosovo."

"I'm not happy about their decision. I do not want to blame them, because they lead their policies, but we, the Serbs and the Serbian leadership will not hold anything against anyone," Vucic said.

"But everyone should know that we know how to remember and honor those who have helped us," said he.