Aleksandar Šapić elected mayor of Belgrade: "I want the champion city"

Aleksandar Šapić elected mayor of Belgrade: "I want the champion city"

Aleksandar Šapić was elected mayor of Belgrade with a tight majority.

57 councilors voted for the election of Šapić, who headed the list "Aleksandar Vučić - Together we can do everything".

Šapić won the votes of 57 of the 110 Belgrade City Assembly members in a secret voting.

Opposition councilors did not take part in the vote for the new city leaders. Deputy Mayor Vesna Vidović was elected by secret ballot, by roll call, as well as 13 members of the City Council proposed by Šapić.

"I will do my best not to gamble on the trust of my fellow citizens who voted for the list around the SNS, to justify it with my work and not to disappoint them in any way", the new mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, said today in the City Assembly.

After being elected the first man of the capital, he said in his address to the councilors that he wanted Belgrade to be "a winning city, a champion city".

"I want to say from this rostrum that I will fight equally for the interests of all Belgraders and that it is my obligation to be a just mayor, regardless of anyone's political nationality or any other affiliation," Šapić said.

He presented, as he said, the "agenda", with only one item, which, he says, will always be above all and which they must never forget - Belgrade.

“Along with my gratitude I want to symbolically set an agenda with just one Item – an item that has to be above us all and which we should never forget. That item is Belgrade. That is something we will live with, agreeing or not agreeing but that is the thing which brings together all the similarities and differences among us,” he said.

Šapić pointed out that the time we are going through, war, economic and political crises should not be something that will scare us and emphasized that the issues of energy supply, heating, public transport will be the most important questions to which we will have to have the right answer.

"All city services will have to work harder and better than in the past," the new mayor pointed out.

He said that there would be no giving up when it comes to the subway, the bypass, the new Sava Bridge, the Karadjordjeva tunnel, the Topcider tunnel, the inner main ring, and wastewater treatment plants.

"There is no giving up on caring for the old, young, socially endangered, pets..., as well as on more efficient and transparent city administration, as well as on the safety of our children," Šapić emphasized.

He added that he wants to encourage diversity, to open Belgrade even more and to make it a place where everyone will feel at home. "Such a city, wide, open, different, warm, a city for everyone, is a city that I will represent and defend," Šapić said.

He added that his biography is mostly known to Belgraders and that he will use part of his biography, which is that he constantly competed in sports, but that it was not enough for him, that he always strived to be first, right and best and never does not give up on the set goal.

"I wish the same to this city," Šapić said, adding that he wanted Belgrade to be a winning city, a city that is fighting.

"I want the champion city," said the new mayor, and reminded that he never gave up, even though it used to be that way. He added that in such moments, he changed the form of the fight, strengthened the focus and concentration on the clearly desired goal.

Šapić said that he never hid that he wanted to be mayor and that it was a great goal and challenge for him.

Although, as he said, he does not consider it a special advantage, he pointed out that he was born in Belgrade, but that he spent a third of his life outside of it because of the sport he played.

He pointed out that he knows the city, all its settlements, history.

"That's why I know that Belgrade is life and I know life in this city. And people. The people that this city made", said the first man of Belgrade.

He added that he especially wanted to address the members of the SNS who must be aware of the responsibilities on all of us and how many of us have no right to make the slightest mistake this time. He told them that they were not given a mandate to enjoy it, but to work and to imitate the man he considers the first ideologue and founder of the new Serbian policy and the creator of modern Serbia as we know it today.

"Serbia that is proud. Serbia that is open and ready to help everyone, but which, above all, cares about itself and its people. Serbia, which is the biggest guarantor of peace and stability in this region," Šapić said.

As he said, working harder than him and being more efficient is not so easy.

"But today, in this time, full of challenges and all the troubles it brings, not to try as hard as he does, it is a betrayal of the very idea of ​​our organization, the essence of what we should be, and what is the time of this country, this city and every voice which we won in the elections", Šapić pointed out.

He also stated that his door will always be open to all citizens, and he is ready to hear all constructive proposals. Belgrade mayoral candidate Aleksandar Šapić asked today at the City Assembly session, after the opposition claims that he does not have an adequate education to lead the city, to tell him who is more qualified than him for that position, having in mind that he headed New Belgrade for three terms and two years as assistant mayor.

"Who is more qualified than me to lead the city, having in mind the 13 years I spent at the helm of the city and New Belgrade?", asked Šapić, who was first elected mayor of New Belgrade in 2012 and in 2010 and 2011 was assistant mayor.

Šapić said that he might be the worst mayor, but that he hoped that would not happen.

"If you can, tell me who is more qualified than me, and which is the school that we should graduate from so that we can send people to school to take over the leadership of the city one day," Šapić asked during a several-hour debate in which opposition parties said they would not support his candidacy for mayor and the continuity of SNS politics in Belgrade.

Responding to the comments of the representative of the coalition We must (Moramo), he emphasized that he is ready to help the academic community and that he expects proposals that will improve their position.

"If you give me a proposal, I will be happy to help," said Šapić in a comment by Jelena Vasiljevic, who said that the coalition "We must" welcome the ruling coalition's decision to put people with a doctorate at the helm of the city and believe that fact can help the position of the academic community and in the fight against the plague of fake diplomas.

She also asked how the City thinks it is working on the development of the intellectual industry if it is known that minimal funds are allocated for science. Šapić emphasized that the intellectual industry does not include only scientists, but all people who are engaged in intellectual work, and that more than 2.000 young people who are focused on the IT sector have just returned to Serbia from abroad during coronavirus pandemic.

On the comments of the representatives of the opposition that he wants to demolish the Old Sava Bridge, he said that the City wants to make a better, more functional bridge, which will not slow down the development of the city.

On the criticism of the opposition because of the attitudes around the gondola, he emphasized that the city will build it if the approval of the authorities arrives. "If it is not possible to build on that place, we will not build it, because we must not endanger the cultural good Kalemegdan," Šapić said.

Also, on the topic of allegations that he voted against the metro passing through New Belgrade, he added that this is not true and that the metro will have four stations in New Belgrade.

Responding to the criticism that the Sava embankment is in a bad condition, and the life of the citizens of New Belgrade is endangered, he said that such incorrect claims cause anxiety among the citizens.

He also said that 75% of the facilities had been built there by 2013, but that he himself had said several times that it was impossible to prevent and that the problem was in the law.

On the remarks of many representatives of the opposition, including Milica Stamenkovski Djurdjević, and questions about why he approached the Progressives, Šapić said that he had not heard anyone blame him for something he had done, but for changing the organization. He added that Milica Djurdjević is in no position to lecture him, because she was a member of the SRS together with many members of the SNS.

"I did not reconcile or quarrel with the SNS, our policies have merged," Šapić concluded.