Vucic from New York: Student List Leads, Hard to Catch
President Vucic said from New York that the Student List is ahead and will be hard to catch, even though a Faktor Plus poll puts his list ten points ahead, at 48.6 to 37.1 percent.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who heads the “Aleksandar Vucic, United Serbia” election list, said on September 22 in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly session, that the Student List, which he called “the blockader list,” is ahead of his own and will be hard to catch. It was the first time he had publicly admitted the rival list’s lead, even though the latest poll from the agency Faktor Plus gives him 48.6 percent support against 37.1 percent for the Student List.
He spoke with Serbian journalists in New York, where he is taking part in the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. He declined to comment directly on the poll numbers but said the “race is very uncertain.”
According to the Faktor Plus poll, which Srpske Novine covered earlier, the list built around the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) leads by ten points, 48.6 percent against 37.1 percent for the Student List. The same survey found that lists tied to the Socialist Party of Serbia and to “European Serbia” would also clear the threshold to enter parliament.
Asked to comment on that result, Vucic said:
The blockader list is a list against something, they have no policy of their own. That list does have the lead, and it will be hard to catch. We will give everything we have and keep fighting until the very last moment.
He added that the SNS would give its all and fight to the last moment of the campaign.
Journalists also asked him about a video made against him by students in blockade at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Vucic replied that a campaign he says is being waged against women in Serbia worries him far more than the video itself:
That video matters much less to me, even though in it they predicted and threatened that I would be raped in prison or wherever. What is far more dangerous is what they are doing to women in Serbia, and the campaign being run against women in Serbia is so vile that I have no words for it. They hate women.
What did Vucic say from Central Park?
A few hours before speaking with journalists, around six in the morning New York time, Vucic posted a video on Instagram filmed in Central Park. He opened with a joke about the Student List’s cycling campaign: “I don’t run, I can’t boast about pedaling a bike or sprinting, but I have learned to get up early and work hard for my country,” he said.
In the same clip he confirmed his upcoming address to the UN General Assembly and admitted he was nervous. “Of course I’m nervous. The only thing I can promise people is that I will fight for us,” he said. The portals Republika and 24sedam reported that the speech was scheduled for 10 p.m., while Danas reported that the address would take place in the afternoon. The discrepancy between the two accounts was not resolved.
In the same message he also announced his return to Serbia:
I am arriving in Serbia in two, two and a half days, and I will lead the fight, the fight against those who degraded our country, tried to humiliate the women of Serbia, insulted us, and tore down everything we value.
Asked about a statement by former Health Minister Danica Grujicic, who said Serbia could disappear by 2050 without a change of government, Vucic said that if her side’s ideas won out, the country would disappear much faster. He said a win for his list guarantees Serbia not just survival but the fastest progress in its history. According to the portal Alo, in the same remarks he also brought up “the Soskic era, when the dinar kept falling,” as an example of what he says the other side would bring back.
As the lead candidate on his list, Vucic has already announced he will resign as President of Serbia. He plans to submit his resignation on September 28, after returning from New York, so he can run as a candidate for parliament in the early elections.
