"Opposition leaders requested that I turn my back on Vucic"

BELGRADE -- Opposition chiefs and people close to the leaders of Alliance for Serbia have asked me to betray Aleksandar Vucic in the 2017 presidential election, Dacic says

"Opposition leaders requested that I turn my back on Vucic"

BELGRADE -- Opposition chiefs and people close to the leaders of Alliance for Serbia have asked me to betray Aleksandar Vucic in the 2017 presidential election, Dacic says

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EPA-EFE / MARIO CRUZ

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic, the leader of Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), told the media that he didn't find it difficult to refuse such an offer.

"The campaign was at its onset, with the presidential elections just announced, and the phone kept ringing. There was no one who did not call me, trying to persuade me to turn my back on Vucic", Dacic says.

He added that everyone wanted only one thing - to leave Vucic to stand alone in the election campaign, depriving him from SPS support in the presidential election. "It was a crazy request, a miserable attempt to force me to change sides, playing a dirty game. The party I have been running since 2012 is in coalition with Vucic's party. We have gone through a lot and it turned out that we are quite correct partners, as each side respects everything we agree on", Dacic points out.

Asked if it would be easier for him to cooperate with someone else instead of Vucic, he replies: "We will not allow anyone to break up our coalition, we work together, fighting jointly for Serbia's interests. I know that many people both here and abroad would like to see the ruling coalition splitting. I will respond in Milosevic's manner: Wishful thinking, it will never happen".

Dacic also estimates that the SNS and the SPS-JS coalition will win even more convincingly in the 2020 elections as they fight for Serbia's interests.

He points out that the SPS policy is in no way consistent with the views of the opposition parties, gathered in a helter-skelter way, as he put it. According to him, the opposition in Serbia does not have political agenda, and it lacks the main thing, the support of the people.

"What they do, simply cannot be and is not in Serbia's interest," SPS leader tells Serbian Telegraph, Tanjug reports.

He recalls that he sent a similar message to the opposition during the 2017 presidential election campaign.

"I have never seen such hatred towards Serbia anywhere yet. They do not hate Vucic, they hate Serbia. I love Serbia and that is why I am with Vucic, struggling for the brighter future of Serbia," Dacic told opposition leaders at the time.