“The time for a decision has come. History teaches us that progress is never achieved by chance, but through difficult choices, accountability to one’s own conscience, and the determination to move forward. Winston Churchill said this when he found himself in a situation similar to mine tonight. After years at the helm of the state, you realize that progress rarely comes as quickly as you would like,” Vučić said, adding:“In that same spirit, Chinese President Xi Jinping says: ‘Never forget why you started, and you will accomplish your mission.’ The mandate of a president is earned through direct elections, without calculations or deals, fairly and democratically. I am grateful to the citizens who, on two occasions, placed an enormous amount of their trust in me and, in doing so, entrusted me with the highest office and responsibility that one person can receive. Today, dear citizens, is the day when I am submitting my resignation, and for the last time in my capacity as president, I will try not to burden you with numbers—or at least not with half as many as I could—but instead to say a few words about the new chapter that lies ahead for Serbia and what it holds.”He said that the unemployment rate in 2012 was 25.9%, while youth unemployment stood at 54%—meaning that almost none of the young people had jobs. He also referred to the uncertainty surrounding the dinar exchange rate, saying that people would wake up each morning more concerned about what the exchange rate would be than about the weather forecast, and to the loss of 500,000 jobs in just three or four years under what he described as someone’s irresponsible term in office.    View this post on Instagram           A post shared by Aleksandar Vučić (@buducnostsrbijeav)“When I became prime minister, the public debt-to-GDP ratio was 77 percent, as I have already mentioned. Today, thanks to you, dear citizens of Serbia, Serbia is a country with a low level of debt—its debt is half that of the most developed countries in the European Union,” Vučić said. He noted that Serbia’s public debt stood at 43 percent of GDP, compared with an average of 84.85 percent in the European Union.“What I am particularly proud of are the hundreds of factories—more than 300 factories and production facilities—that we have opened, both foreign and domestic. And the fact is that today, although we have around 500,000 fewer people, primarily due to an extremely low natural population growth rate, our country has as many as 500,000 more formally employed people than it did in 2012,” Vučić said.As he pointed out, these are the facts and the results—as the scoreboard shows—whether someone likes hearing them or not.“More than 300 factories and production facilities”Vučić said he was particularly proud of the hundreds of factories that had been opened.“More than 300 factories and production facilities that we have opened, both foreign and domestic. And the fact is that today, although we have around 500,000 fewer people, primarily due to an extremely low natural population growth rate, our country has as many as 500,000 more formally employed people than it did in 2012. These are the facts. These are the results. The scoreboard says so, whether someone likes hearing it or not. At this point—and I’ll stop here so as not to bore you—I’ll show you some significant figures.”He stressed that Serbia had changed and that it was a different country.He said that 686 kilometers of motorways and expressways had been built over the past 13 years, adding that Serbia had changed during that period and that GDP per capita would reach €15,934 next year.“This is GDP per capita in 2012: €4,870. This is 2027: €15,934 per capita. Just take a look and see how different Serbia is, how Serbia has changed, how the face of Serbia looks different—not only because of the railways, roads, and fantastic projects such as Belgrade Waterfront, but because we have changed the country so much that we have become somewhat spoiled, thinking that we should overtake Germany and France and countries that are 500 or 600 years ahead of us, and that we can accomplish that in one, two, or three years,” Vučić said in his address from the Presidency of Serbia.He said that another thing he was particularly proud of was the state of Serbia’s road network.“Over a period of 70 years, 596 kilometers were built here, while in 13 years we have built 686 kilometers of motorways and expressways, and another 399 or 400 kilometers of some of the most important roads are currently under construction. These roads do not simply connect places; these roads connect people, create jobs, and bring investors to these areas,” Vučić said.“Whoever receives the voters’ trust will have to preserve peace and stability”Vučić said that whoever receives the citizens’ trust in the upcoming snap parliamentary elections on October 25 will have to preserve peace and stability while protecting and safeguarding Serbia’s national interests.“Whoever receives the people’s trust—I am speaking as President of the Republic, not as someone who is at the top of one of the electoral lists—will have to preserve peace and stability. But peace and stability will have to be maintained by protecting our national interests, safeguarding our national interests, and above all protecting our people in Kosovo and Metohija, and by not allowing those who will try to convince whoever is in power that the best thing to do is to give up Kosovo as quickly as possible, because that way we supposedly will stop looking at the past and start looking toward the future,” Vučić said.He added that everyone would have to resist such pressure and act responsibly.“Who can and who wants to do that—let the citizens decide for themselves. We will have to continue with economic development, but when we talk about economic development, we will first and foremost have to focus on innovation, artificial intelligence, robots, and making sure that we do not fall behind,” he said.He added that Serbia therefore had to continue on its European path while maintaining relations with its traditional friends in the East, and accelerate its economic development even further.“And not only in the way the IMF has said that, thanks to what we have done so far—not thanks to some future work—we will be the fastest-growing economy next year. We will have to invest that money in innovation and education,” Vučić stressed.“We have failed the most in education; the interests of professors were put ahead of the interests of children”Vučić said that the state had failed most in the field of education because, as he put it, it had allowed the interests of certain professors to be placed ahead of the interests of children.“I have come to a painful subject, to what we sometimes call education and higher education—you can call it whatever you want. This is where we have failed the most, and here we were all irresponsible. Those of us in government, because we allowed it; and those who should never have allowed their own interests—I am talking about some teachers and some professors—to be placed ahead of the interests of our children and our future. We made terrible mistakes that will cost us dearly in the decades to come. That is why it is our responsibility to change all of this in the period ahead,” Vučić said.He said that salaries in higher education and the education sector had never been higher than they are now, and that he believed they should be even higher.“They have never been higher, in real terms, not just nominally. That does not mean they shouldn’t be higher. Yes, they should be higher. But that was not the reason. The essence was that some people behaved irresponsibly and unseriously, turning our faculties into party headquarters, and that is one of the reasons why I am running and why I want us to defeat such a bad and destructive policy,” he said.He added that it was important to pursue a balanced foreign policy in Serbia’s interest.“A foreign policy that has enabled us to pay $318 for 1,000 cubic meters of gas instead of $868, which was the price yesterday. But it is not only about that. And it is not all about money. There is something that concerns the law, justice, and the soul of our people, which we must also respect and will have to respect in the future. That is what we have done in the previous period, no matter how difficult it was,” Vučić said.He stressed the need to increase care for citizens and modernize local governments.“We will have to take greater care of people. Everyone—people in government as well as people in the opposition—will have to care less about themselves and a little more about the people whom it is our duty to look after. I have learned some lessons. I believe it is important to modernize local administrations and change many things, because when you ask people, they do not have a problem with our foreign policy or with our overall economic growth. But they do have a problem when someone does not hear them, does not want to hear them, and simply refuses to listen to them. That is what people in Serbia have a problem with. And that is why we have to change ourselves, as well as everyone else,” he said.Pardons for 49 peopleVučić then spoke about a decision he made shortly before submitting his resignation concerning the granting of amnesty and pardons to 49 people, 23 of whom were connected to events that had taken place in Serbia over the previous year and a half.“On the second-to-last day of my presidency, I made a decision to grant amnesty and pardons to 49 individuals. Of those, 23 were connected to all these terrible events we have been going through over the past year and a half. And despite the opinion of part of the commission, despite the opinions of various Serbian agencies and security services, I decided to pardon 12 individuals from the Novi Sad group, led by Mila Pajić,” Vučić said, addressing the public from the building of the General Secretariat of the President of the Republic.He added that he had also decided to pardon 11 individuals who, on the other side, had participated in incidents involving blockade protesters. He said he had acted as President of the Republic, believing that this would be an additional gesture of reconciliation toward everyone who had behaved irresponsibly and recklessly.“It was difficult for me to accept that some young people, regardless of what serious acts they may have committed and however serious those acts may have been, were spending their youth and their lives outside Serbia when that was not their choice. I have no problem with that, and that was my decision,” Vučić said.On the electionsIn the continuation of his speech, Vučić spoke about the upcoming elections, his decision to leave the office of President of Serbia, as well as the political situation in the country and relations between the government and the opposition.“By the end of December, under the Constitution and the law—and I’ll put this in a way that makes it technically easier for you, journalists, who sometimes like to read everything and sometimes don’t like to read everything—we must have held the presidential elections, the first round of the presidential elections. Before that, as you know, we have parliamentary elections on the 25th,” Vučić said.He said that numerous friends and presidents from abroad had asked him in disbelief: “Why are you doing this? Why are you leaving office?”“No one has ever done this. I said: ‘Because I think it is fair.’ For me, democracy as a form of political system is extremely important. Those who avoided dialogue have always been the ones talking about tyranny in society. Those who most strongly advocated one-party thinking have always been the ones talking about a lack of pluralism, and who never wanted to listen to anyone who thought differently. I offered them dialogue four or five years ago, three years ago, two years ago, and a year ago. And today I accepted an invitation from Radio Television of Serbia to go on my own against the two of them. Both of them refused, and tomorrow they will tell you that they supposedly were not given media coverage and did not have the opportunity to speak. But they have all learned to hit a punching bag. Hitting a punching bag is not democracy. It is manly, it is gentlemanly. The word ‘manly’ is wrong and stupid here,” Vučić said, adding:“Women are braver than us. It is not fair to hit a punching bag. If you want to enter the game, if you want to step into the ring, be prepared to take punches as well. And they have learned how to throw punches, but not to have anyone fight back. That is not democracy. That is why I accepted all those debates and all those head-to-head encounters, while they rejected them. That is why they never wanted to talk. Because what do they have to offer? Burning down buildings? Beating people? Smashing stones into someone’s head or throwing eggs at them?“All in all, I am proud that, apart from the wounding of Mr. Bogdanović, when a blockade protester shot at him here in front of the National Assembly, and one stabbing—I deliberately will not say his surname because he asked me not to—we got through all of this without the most serious possible incidents. We got through numerous lies and numerous falsehoods.“And I want to leave the presidency also because I have spent 10 years listening to the most terrible lies and falsehoods. How many of you here have misled the public? I will not tell you to your face that you lied, although I would have every right to do so. How many of you here misled the public with stories about the ‘sonic cannon’? Have you at least sometimes thought about lowering your heads and telling yourselves: thank you for finally doing that? You know who you are. You were not ashamed when you lied about Jovanjica, nor when you lied about Sarajevo Safari, nor when you lied about the boy who died in Valjevo.“That is why I want, as an ordinary man, as one of the people, to compete against those who were, and who would always be, against the people.”Resignation signedFollowing his address to the citizens of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić signed his resignation as President of Serbia.“I am signing the following text: ‘Pursuant to Article 116, paragraph 5, of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, I hereby submit my resignation from the office of President of the Republic.’ And now there is a brief explanation, which I have already given: KPRS No. 164, in Belgrade, September 27. I will inform the public of my resignation in accordance with the Constitution. President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić.”Vučić said at the Presidency of Serbia that he would hand over the office tomorrow morning to the President of the National Assembly of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, who would serve as acting president.He added that presidential elections must be held by the end of December.
27.9.2026.
22:34
Aleksandar Vučić has resigned
Aleksandar Vučić has resigned as President of Serbia.
Izvor: B92.net
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