PM rules out early parliamentary election

PM rules out early parliamentary election

"We have passed the hardest part. All the numbers, in terms of public finances, are good in April as well," Vucic said as he met with local residents.

The prime minister said that "if the trend continues, public sector wages and pensions will be increased by the end of the year."

Vucic added that Serbia "has to be placed on a firm foundation," and that this was what his government "has been successfully doing so far."

Considering that Novi Pazar and the Raska District have a large Bosniak (Muslim) minority, he addressed "citizens of Muslim faith" to tell them that "only together can we make progress," and that he was ready to, with that goal in mind, "talk to all Bosniaks in Serbia and in the region."

He added that "those who think that Orthodox Christians and Muslims can live separately, or in such a way that some are not there" fail to realize how much damage they do to their own people.

Vucic then said that "Serbs and Bosniaks have lived together for centuries and will continue in the future."

He also "announced the solving of open problems" in Novi Pazar - where he was on Monday made an honorary citizen - adding that "whatever problem there is we can solve it together and together make a modern city, where people will have more jobs and know that hatred leads nowhere."

"Only together can we make progress," said he, and noted that he "does not divide people into Serbs and Bosniaks."

Vucic traveled to Novi Pazar today for a groundbreaking ceremony for a new diagnostic center, which he said would be finished by the end of the year - "so that citizens from this part of Serbia no longer have to go to Kragujevac and Belgrade for medical examinations."

The prime minister also announced the construction of "tens of kilometers" of roads in Novi Pazar and its vicinity, as well as new timber processing plants in Novi Pazar and Raska, and "cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and an Italian company in the field of agriculture" that would "revive Mt. Pester villages."

He promised that "in the next two years" this part of Serbia will see more funds than it has in the previous 30 years, and asked people to be "patient, and trust the government," describing Novi Pazar as Serbia's "asset, not a problem."

Speaking about the announcements that Hashim Thaci might travel to Belgrade this week, Vucic said that authorities "will behave in line with the law," noting that there is a valid guilty verdict passed against Thaci.

He added that "nobody is pressuring Serbia when it comes to that issue," and that "nothing would be gained by pressure."