Ljajic denies he wants to be Serbia's new foreign minister

Ljajic denies he wants to be Serbia's new foreign minister

As for his recently announced decision to take part in the presidential race in 2017, Ljajic said he made it "a year ago" - but that had he known the announcement would cause "such reactions" he would not have made it.

Ljajic described these reactions as "brutal accusations" of being "a Trojan horse" of the SNS leader and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, with whom he allegedly "made a deal in order to take votes from the Democratic bloc and increase the blackmailing capacity of the SNS."

Ljajic also said that neither Vucic nor his own party knew about his decision before he announced it.

"I don't hear accusations directed at other candidates. After all, I too have the right to go to elections with my name and surname after 15 years and measure myself. I have no other motive," he said, adding that his party is being "constantly accused of joining various coalitions in order to remain in power," and that his presidential bid would give him an opportunity to "measure" himself, and the party.

Ljajic said his SDPS joined a pre-election coalition (with the SNS) for the April 24 parliamentary election because had it run alone "with such competition," it would not have crossed the threshold.

"I have my path and I cannot be, at 52, changing my positions, character, for the sake of interest. Do you think I don't know what citizens of Serbia would like me to tell them in order to have more support? Believe me, I have no secrets in this job, but I remain consistent. If that policy has no support, why would I be still doing this job," he was quoted as saying.

Ljajic described "fragile democratic institutions of regional countries, ours included" as "Serbia's key problem."

According to him, the most difficult job will be to build the system - "something that is a problem for all governments because nobody's been working on building the institutions, instead, most things depended on the head of government, or the president."

"Ours is a servile society, the whole Balkans, and Serbia at that. We want a leader who will solve all our problems, take care of us, while we're watching Farma and Parovi (reality TV shows)," said Ljajic.

Such things prevent a society from moving forward, he added, "and mentioned nationalism in society, populism in politics, and communism in the economy," Tanjug quoted the interview published by NIN.