Nikolić: Radicals are ready to lead

The Serb Radical Party, SRS, will win a sufficient number of votes and is ready to take over, Tomislav Nikolic says. "I always hear stories about EU membership 'in seven years'," the deputy leader of the Radicals told Politika daily, in reference to the policy proclaimed after the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Nikolic: Radicals are ready to lead "As years go by, it's always seven years. And, they say, make sure that the SRS does not win in those seven years, because then that [EU] membership will not materialize in seven, but in 77 years." "And you know that people are intimidated when there's constant fear mongering against something people have never tried," Nikolic, whose party was the single largest in the previous parliament, said. As for foreign investors, he said they are listening to what each party has to say, but also look at how they behave, "who is asking for bribes, who's a criminal". "They don't only listen to stories that the SRS must not take over power. If Germans were listening only to the stories about the Radicals, they would never have built Zemun's largest factory," Nikolic said of the Belgrade municipality that has been his party's stronghold for years. The deputy leader of the SRS added that foreign investors would have access to him "24 hours a day", while he, as the prime minister, would guarantee the safety of their investments. Asked if he had a strategy ready for the country's foreign policy, Nikolic said the foreign policy was now "raised to a supposedly high level, because it has uneducated people, a party apparatus, with people who at some point wrote something against Serbia or against Slobodan Milosevic to immediately become ambassadors." As for his party's moves, Nikolic said their strategy toward the EU, UN and OSCE, and cooperation with other countries, is "already known". Tomislav Nikolic (FoNet, archive)

Nikolić: Radicals are ready to lead

"As years go by, it's always seven years. And, they say, make sure that the SRS does not win in those seven years, because then that [EU] membership will not materialize in seven, but in 77 years."

"And you know that people are intimidated when there's constant fear mongering against something people have never tried," Nikolić, whose party was the single largest in the previous parliament, said.

As for foreign investors, he said they are listening to what each party has to say, but also look at how they behave, "who is asking for bribes, who's a criminal".

"They don't only listen to stories that the SRS must not take over power. If Germans were listening only to the stories about the Radicals, they would never have built Zemun's largest factory," Nikolić said of the Belgrade municipality that has been his party's stronghold for years.

The deputy leader of the SRS added that foreign investors would have access to him "24 hours a day", while he, as the prime minister, would guarantee the safety of their investments.

Asked if he had a strategy ready for the country's foreign policy, Nikolić said the foreign policy was now "raised to a supposedly high level, because it has uneducated people, a party apparatus, with people who at some point wrote something against Serbia or against Slobodan Milošević to immediately become ambassadors."

As for his party's moves, Nikolić said their strategy toward the EU, UN and OSCE, and cooperation with other countries, is "already known".