LIVE: The fight for Serbia. World War III? "It will get harder"

BELGRADE -- The special Serbian Parliament session, whose agenda includes the report on the negotiations with Pristina from September 1, 2022, to January 15, 2023, started.

Source: Tanjug Thursday, 2.02.2023. | 11:45

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Tanjug/AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic

President Aleksandar Vučić also attends the session.

Vučić said on Wednesday that he is not running away anywhere and that he has no problem with confronting his people and the parliament in order to answer every question, as was the case at the last Parliamentary session on Kosovo and Metohija, when, as he said, he listened to the worst insults and nastiness.

The Prime Minister's reaction

Ten points

FOTO TANJUG/ ZORAN ŽESTIĆ/ nr

Vučić said at the session that we also have an agreement on the management team, a total of 4 agreements from 2013 and 2015, and there, as he said, there is nothing to discuss, however, as Vučić says, he is worried that they will want it again to talk, which will be the cause of big problems, but it suits us.

"Knowing well, not by my joy, the best opportunities in Europe and the world, everyone in Serbia together did not attend the negotiations on Kosovo and Metohija, as far as I personally attended. I know what is possible and I know what is not. I have come to tell you what will happen in the future and what we could expect. I remind the citizens of Serbia that since Slobodan Milošević I have been talking about Kosovo and Metohija, had meetings and so on. Our policy will be:

*Point 1. Keeping peace and stability. "To restrain ourselves, we do not respond to provocations, unless people's lives and property are threatened like in 2004, when our great heroes remained silent." Because peace and stability are not slogans, but something that restores and brings life to Serbia. It is something that allows us to preserve the biological survival of our people';

*Point 2. Persistence on the formation of the CSM, which must be a legal and physical framework. "For the rights of our people, political involvement and for every kind of support from Serbia, which no one will be able to prevent from thinking about how food, medicine and other things will arrive";

*Item 3. Safety of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. "It is part of both the peace and stability point and the CSM point. Security for Serbs means that no one worries when sending a child to school, that he does not think about whether he will be arrested when he goes somewhere because he has a Serbian name';

*Point 4. Better life for Serbs in Kosovo;

*Point 5. In contrast to those who like to shout slogans, and to be the heroes of others, I said that Serbia will talk and negotiate, even on the worst papers, because we have no right because of the past;

*Item 6. Preservation of national, state and vital interests of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija;

*Item 7. Vital interest to stay on the European path.

*Point 8. Growth of Serbia. 'Food, army and energy. Food is lacking everywhere in Europe, that's why we have to work there. We have record amounts of coal and gas at the landfills... We worked, army has to be three times stronger than today, because it saved the people of Kosovo and Metohija. Because they knew that we would not allow a pogrom. We need the development of health care, we need medicines, hospitals, Clinical Centers, to fix problems in Novi Pazar, Novi Sad'...;

*Point 9. Continuation of the discussion;

*Item 10. Program of Serbia 2023. 'Average salaries will exceed 1,000 euros, and thus we will join the ranks, certainly no longer of poor countries. We will reach some EU countries, that will bring people back to us, western and eastern Serbia is emptying. Belgrade is filled with migration. We can partially solve all these problems.''

Franco-German paper

Vučić, as he stated, received a Franco-German paper in Tirana, which on December 4 became an informal framework for Serbia's accession to the EU.

"It is clear that we are talking about the framework, that there will be clear negotiations. We sent our non-paper proposal in September, we sent everything with which we agree, with which we do not agree, and what is the path to normalization that we want. We want, because it is important that we have good relations with the Albanians, so that our people do not suffer... We need to save the lives of Stefan Jovanović and every other child in our country. None of us sent children to their parishes, schools on Christmas Eve... In this agreement, on the date of St. John, the big five come to Belgrade".

He pointed out that the representatives of the most powerful countries of the Western world had come.

As he said, they came and said that they hope he understands that they are determined to solve the problems.

"They said that everyone is at war, although they deny it. They have problems, and they will not allow a new escalation in the Balkans. I understood that, and anxiously awaited the meeting. Then in the third sentence they announced: 'Dear President, if the work is not accepted on this initiative and implementation you will be faced with:

1. Stopping accession negotiations with the EU;

2. Not only with the interruption of the arrival of further investments from the Western world to Serbia, but also with the withdrawal of investments;

3. Other measures will follow that must be shown that those who are not in agreement with the EU must pass'".

Vučić said that after the announcement of the three points, this was discussed two more times, but the talks continued.

He also added that he was faced with a dilemma in the talks, and that he had to answer immediately, to which he said that Serbia has reservations about the key issue.

"Therefore, it seems to me that I have chosen the only possible solution. A solution with which I cannot harm the vital functions of Serbia. On Christmas Day in Gotovuša near Štrpce, a member of the Kosovo security forces shot a Serbian boy and a 21-year-old boy. On Christmas a boy was beaten, on January 22 a boy was also beaten in Suvi Do. Miljan was shot while he was in the car," Vučić recalled.

Vučić said that he speaks exactly as it is.

"Both sides will be guided by the principles from the UN Charter. Since there is no specific implementation, point 4 is much more dangerous. It is written about point four in the second paragraph that Serbia will not oppose Kosovo's membership in any international organization. And it will always have a majority for NATO and the EU. There are other things we were ready to discuss regarding education, transport, health, culture... For displaced persons, we also have agreements that talk about diplomas, passports, license plates..."

As he said, what was agreed to go ahead with what is the obligation from the Brussels agreement, which is the CSM.

"CSM cannot be a model of a non-governmental organization, CSM must be what was signed in Brussels", he added.

"Today I will fight for Serbia, as I have done in the previous almost 11 years"

World War III? "It will get harder"

FOTO TANJUG/ ZORAN ŽESTIĆ / nr

Vučić said at the session that today we are witnessing a kind of Third World War that is more difficult, more extensive, and which will be more and more difficult and larger in the months ahead.

"We are one of the few countries that makes decisions independently, a country that is not limited by some barriers. I am proud of such Serbia. What we have to understand is that today in Serbia we can most freely see what both sides in the war are thinking. And since they are in a conflict, in a whirlwind of war, you, as a child, cannot be neutral, remain silent, hide under a rock because they will not allow you to do that," said Vučić and added:

"I'm just going to point out something that Thucydides wrote, it's the Melian dialogue, it's an exchange of opinions between Athens and the inhabitants of Melos, who were faced with an ultimatum (the leaders of Melos faced a terrible choice: Have their Countrymen die as free men or live as slaves), or as that euphemism means now, acceptance of reality and the situation on the ground".