Vucic in Lapovo: They Want to Call Us Untouchable, but I Offer Dialogue
President Aleksandar Vucic announced a water-supply investment of about three million euros in Lapovo and said state aid reaches citizens in early September, alongside a sharp message to the opposition.
- President Aleksandar Vucic visited Lapovo on Sunday, July 19, announcing a state investment of about three million euros in water supply and sewage.
- He said money for citizens will reach their accounts in early September, "exactly a month and a half" after his statement.
- He accused the opposition of having no program and of lacking a clear stance on sanctions against Russia for five years.
- The visit comes amid continuing blockades and talk of calling early elections.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic toured Lapovo on Sunday, July 19, where he announced that the state will invest about three million euros in the water and sewage network of the small town in the Sumadija region. A contract, he specified, should be signed within the next two weeks, and the project also covers school renovation and road links to neighboring municipalities.
Lapovo is a municipality of just over 7,000 residents that, by Vucic’s estimate, could not raise such a sum “even in fifty years.” “When we solve the water issue, Lapovo will be peaceful,” the president told the gathered residents and supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party. Alongside the infrastructure message, he repeated his pledge that state aid to citizens reaches their accounts in early September, “exactly a month and a half” from that statement.
Why did a visit to a small town take on a national tone?
A visit to one Sumadija town, ordinarily local news, gained wider weight because of the context. Vucic tied the infrastructure announcement to a sharp political message, claiming that his opponents are trying to push him out of public life. “They want to say that we are untouchable, a pariah, that there is no talking to us,” he said, adding that he, by contrast, insists on dialogue.
That phrasing is not accidental. It shifts the emphasis from a concrete water project to a narrative about the alleged isolation of the governing camp, at a moment when blockades and protests continue and the prospect of early elections hangs over the political scene. In party circles, the visit reads as an early campaign appearance, in which a local investment is presented as proof that the government “delivers,” while the street demands a different answer.
Vucic also used the occasion to address the opposition, which he accused of having no program and of lacking, for five years now, a clear stance on sanctions against Russia. In doing so he tried to redirect the debate from the demonstrators’ demands to the question of his rivals’ foreign-policy consistency, a familiar tactic of the party leadership ahead of an electoral cycle.
Infrastructure as an answer to political pressure
The pattern is recognizable. A concrete investment, water works, a school, a road, is presented as a tangible result, while political tension is met with a message about dialogue that, in the president’s words, the other side refuses. For the residents of Lapovo, three million euros for water is news of immediate significance, regardless of the broader political backdrop.
The opposition, for its part, reads the continued blockades precisely as a response to what it calls the government’s monopoly over public resources and media space. The clash of two interpretations, a government that builds and an opposition that alleges isolation, is likely to shape the coming weeks as well, especially if an election date is officially announced.
It remains an open question how much the Lapovo water project and the promise of September aid will shift the mood of voters who have been taking to the streets for months. Can local investment outweigh political discontent, or are these two currents that meet ever less easily?
