Vučić "cannot swear there'll be no early elections"

BELGRADE -- Aleksandar Vučić has said that "the key is the government's good result" and that he "was not even thinking about swearing there would be no early elections

"As far as we're concerned the absolutely most important thing is to make a good result in Serbia and I don't mean in elections, I mean, the government's results. If we do that, it doesn't matter who and how will be in power after that," he told Belgrade-based TV Pink late on Monday.

The first deputy prime minister and leader of the ruling SNS party stressed at the same time that he was unwilling to "swear" there would be no early elections:

"One never knows when someone might think of trying to stop reforms and modernization."

"We are going toward modernization, there will be no stopping, and enough stories and returning backwards," Vučić was quoted as saying.

According to him, it is "realistic" that Serbia will be given a date for the start of EU membership talks in June, and said this "had nothing to do with the removal of a memorial to UCPMB".

"Today I spoke with British Ambassador Davenport. It is important that we continue with internal reforms, fight against corruption and crime, as well as the dialogue with Priština."

If all that is successful, Vučić said, it was "realistic to expect" a date to be given to Serbia by June.

He also stated that Delta Holding owner Miroslav Mišković's case would go to trial, and that fugitive suspected organized crime boss Darko Šarič "could not have been able to launder his money without the assistance of someone who was then in power".

Vučić also expects results to be known soon from 24 investigations of controversial privatizations, including Sartid, the Veterinarian Institute, C Market, the Port of Belgrade, and others.