PM "hears only insults, but no real complaints"

PM "hears only insults, but no real complaints"

"I heard no complaints, mostly it's insults and untruths. What would they do better? Would they work as much, not to solve Zelezara - was I supposed to leave it as a hub for junkies and dogs?"

Vucic said he was "not afraid of ugly words or insults" and that his job was "to push a policy good for Serbia."

"I'm sure there are those in my family who find it hard to take. But I'm not interested in those insults, I'm interested in Serbia and the citizens of Serbia," said Vucic.

The prime minister also said that journalists keep asking him about the presidential elections, but did not wish to say whether he was "close to a decision" to be a candidate.

"You keep asking that, not to mention all sorts of things in the newspapers and on social networks. It says my son is a junkie, you're not asking that, and he's not a junkie. What can you do. Some have also been making things up that there'll be no elections, that the story in Kosovo was invented in order to introduce an (emergency) situation. Here, we'll have the elections within the deadline and we're very scared. We'll fight for the future, against those who want to return Serbia to the past," said Vucic.

Speaking about a new round of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue under EU auspices, the prime minister said that "the Pavlov reflex develops in such situations" but that there is "no room for complaining."

"The talks in Brussels are never pleasant, but we're going there to fight for Serbia and for our citizens. Serbia has plenty of problems of its own, the last thing it needs is a prime minister lamenting about his own fate. I won't be complaining like most Serbs do, instead we're going there to fight," said he.

According to Vucic, there are no predetermined topics, despite the speculation in some Kosovo-based media.

"I can guess what will be on the table - justice, the judiciary, the Community of Serb Municipalities, although everyone is shying away from mentioning that, probably, (Kosovska) Mitrovica will be there, too," said Vucic.

The prime minister was also asked by journalists in Belgrade on Wednesday what he thought about Croatia's decision to reinstate compulsory military service.

"We'll do nothing over that, I respect both PM Plenkovic and President Grabar-Kitarovic, and wish them much success. Everyone chooses their own path, and they have an open invitation to come (to Serbia). We want to cooperate. Our army is professional, we will modernize it, and we're not doing it because of them, but for our own sake. I think they also are not doing it because of us, I want to believe that," Vucic said.

Vucic, who made these remarks after a presentation of the Belgrade Waterfront project that he attended together with his visiting Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras, also said that Serbia had an RSD 19 billion surplus in January, which is a result that is "11.3 times better than the 1.7 billion planned in the budget."

"If the February and March results are good, there will be room to further improve the living standards, even though, as a rule, those months are more difficult than January," Vucic told reporters.