Vučić: We admitted defeat and congratulated them, but they launched a witch hunt; "Serbia Against Terror"

At the beginning of his address, he emphasised that the “Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia” electoral list had accepted the election results and congratulated its opponents, believing this was a rational step that would allow them to take the initiative and start doing the work they had campaigned for.

“We acknowledged and accepted the election results and congratulated our opponents, believing that this would be enough for rational, serious and responsible people to take responsibility, celebrate and do what they had presumably run for office to accomplish. Instead, over the past 72 hours, we have witnessed naked terror in the streets, in buildings and across Serbia — genuine revolutionary terror, just as they had announced. Many people thought it was a lie and that it was some kind of trick on our part,” Vučić said at a press conference at the SNS headquarters.

He said that this revolutionary terror was reflected in what its proponents hypocritically and falsely describe as “media liberation.”

“In other words, everyone who does not praise them and does not say ‘the plenary assembly is God’ must be removed. That is what they call media liberation, because apparently it is terribly important. The rule of law, as they see it, means: ‘Go and beat up whoever you can, however you can; only the person who gets beaten will be held accountable, and we will arrest anyone who has not shown sufficient humility and obedience,’” Vučić said.

He stressed that nothing of this kind had happened since 1945, claiming that people had never before stormed premises during celebrations of a family patron saint’s day, as had happened when the SNS offices were invaded. He also said that TV Informer had been stormed because, according to him, nothing other than N1 and Nova S — or RTS, if it aligned with their views — was allowed to exist. Nobody had been arrested over these incidents, Vučić said.

“They only feel good when someone demonstrates complete submission and loyalty,” Vučić said, adding that this was why they had insisted that Dragan J. Vučićević say “sorry” while another person patted him on the head under the threat of a blow.

He recalled that the government he had led had not shut down a single television station, including Nova S and N1, which, he claimed, had openly worked to overthrow the constitutional order.

“They have never faced a single lawsuit for insulting anyone — let alone the President of the Republic,” Vučić added.

“We will appeal not only to the Europeans not to shut down Informer — although they are already shutting them down, and we can see that they have already replaced Manja Grčić,” Vučić said.

“The opposition has 104 elected MPs from a single electoral list. Would they also like to abolish those 104 MPs and ‘liberate’ parliament? We will defend ourselves and continue to fight,” he said.

He stressed that he had already lived through something similar in 2000.

“I went through this in 2000, following the special war waged against this country, when pathological hatred and the idea that people could do whatever they wanted and declare themselves the victors took hold in people's minds. We defeated that evil, and we will defeat this one too,” Vučić added.

He also said that supporters of the “Student List” demanded submission and humility from everyone, urging them to bring Dejan Šoškić and other “more serious candidates” back onto the political scene.

“I knew the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) would be bad, and now I am warning you that these people will be even worse. Through the terror they are carrying out, they are calling into question the very survival of the state,” Vučić went on to say.

According to him, the “Student List” is deliberately delaying the formation of a government “until it has settled all its scores.”

“We will be a strong, fair and responsible opposition. We will not throw things at them in Parliament or attack women, as they did in the parliamentary chamber,” Vučić said, adding that it was difficult to predict when the new government would reach an agreement.

“Another appeal we are making is for them to stop the terror and let us get on with our work,” Vučić said.

He specifically thanked all party members and those who had taken part in the election campaign, during which, he said, they had been attacked from all sides.

“The fight for Serbia’s freedom has begun. The fight against those carrying out terror has begun. We will change the name of our parliamentary group to ‘Serbia Against Terror’, and it will keep that name until the terror ends. At that point, we will change it,” Vučić said.