Vucevic in Nis: Final United Serbia Rally on October 21
At the National Theatre convention, SNS president Milos Vucevic urged Nis residents to keep going until the October 25 vote, while guest Milan Knezevic said Serbia is not for sale.
Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) president Milos Vucevic announced a major rally of the “Aleksandar Vucic, United Serbia” list for Wednesday, October 21, at a campaign convention in the National Theatre in Nis. The convention took place on Saturday evening, October 17, eight days before the snap parliamentary elections set for October 25. Speaking alongside Vucevic was Milan Knezevic, leader of the Democratic People’s Party (DNP), who traveled to Nis from Montenegro.
The list’s lead candidate, Aleksandar Vucic, was not among the speakers named by the sources, but Vucevic mentioned him as a guest at the upcoming rally.
What did Vucevic tell the people of Nis?
Vucevic said he expects a convincing win for the list in Nis, given everything the city has endured over the past two years. He opened by thanking the people who could not get into the hall because it was too small for the crowd, and added that the atmosphere outside the theatre was “fantastic”.
“Now is the time for Serbia to unite, to move forward. We have a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of work for Nis, for the south”
He added that “people are clearly ready for October 25, ready for us to unite Serbia”.
Speaking about the protests, he said that over the past two years there had been violence against women and against city leaders, Nis among them. According to him, on March 21 he and Ana Brnabic were prevented by force from reaching a meeting in the city by the “blockaders”, as he calls them. He also mentioned the attack on the mayor and on the director of the Health Center. These are his claims from the speech, and the sources do not carry a response from the other side.
He asked supporters to do everything they can over the next eight days. “There is no resit on October 26. The way we vote on the 26th is how it will be for years to come,” Vucevic said. Alo’s report of the speech gives the date as October 26, although the election is on the 25th.
The dinar, wages and the loan example
Vucevic devoted part of the speech to the economy. “The dinar has been stable for fourteen years. Fourteen years!” he said, adding that the stable exchange rate is the result of the state’s work, the strength of the economy and fiscal stability.
He then brought up Dejan Soskic, a former governor of the National Bank of Serbia (2010 to 2012), who he said is mentioned as a possible prime ministerial candidate. Vucevic quoted Soskic as saying: “There are two options: either we cut wages, or the dinar rate goes to 200 for one euro”. On that basis he worked out what it would mean for citizens: someone paying a 30,000 dinar loan installment today would pay 50,000, or would see their salary fall. Soskic’s response to this reading of his words is not given in the reports of the speech.
What did Milan Knezevic say?
Knezevic spoke about Novi Sad, where the list held a rally the day before.
“Last night Serbia marched magnificently into Novi Sad, and Novi Sad is, politically speaking, like Stalingrad: it rose again, lifted its head, put up resistance and set off on a victory march that will end on October 25 with a magnificent victory for United Serbia and my friend Aleksandar Vucic”
He said the result would be the same in every city in Serbia, “across the board, because a wolf is a wolf and a hare is a hare”. He also spoke about Montenegro. He said Prime Minister Milojko Spajic came to office thanks to Serbia and Vucic, and accused the EU ambassador to Montenegro, Johan Sattler, of deciding what the government and the opposition may do.
He also invoked a line from Vucic in 2012:
“Now we need to tell them, as Aleksandar Vucic said in 2012: enough is enough, because Serbia is not for sale, Serbia is not ready to hand over and betray its national honor and national dignity”
He called on citizens to gather in King Milan Square, but did not give a date.
What do we know about the October 21 rally?
Vucevic announced the rally at the end of his speech, asking those present to turn out in the largest numbers yet.
“And I want to ask you to welcome, in greater numbers than ever on Wednesday the 21st, the man I believe will be the next prime minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic. And it is no accident that our final, biggest rally is here in Nis, in the south, so let me say: thank you Nis, thank you for everything”
So Vucevic presents Wednesday, October 21, as the final rally in Nis before the election. The sources do not link that invitation to Knezevic’s call to gather in King Milan Square, so the venue has not been confirmed.
