Vucic promises 4.8 billion dinars for Krusevac hospital
At a rally for the United Serbia list a week before the election, Vucic announced a hospital overhaul, free dental care and a new sports hall, and offered Ginter Felinger a TV duel.
Aleksandar Vucic, who heads the “Aleksandar Vucic-United Serbia” list, promised on Sunday evening at Kosovo Heroes Square in Krusevac that the overhaul of the city’s hospital, worth 4.8 billion dinars, would be his first job if he becomes prime minister after the parliamentary election on October 25. The rally took place seven days before the vote, and Vucic also raised free dental care, pensions, roads and a televised duel with the Austrian economist Ginter Felinger.
Tanjug does not say how many people gathered, writing only of a “large number of citizens” from Krusevac and the Rasina District. According to Dnevnik, the crowd was greeted with the song “Ruzmarin,” Serbian flags and Serbian Progressive Party flags, and people carried banners reading “Carapani Stand With Vucic” and “Petoletka Trstenik Stands With Vucic.” Those sources mention no speaker other than Vucic.
What did Vucic announce for healthcare?
For the Krusevac hospital, Vucic named a figure of 4.8 billion dinars, which he said is about 42 million euros. He also said healthcare is an area where much remains to be done in the city.
“I take the greatest blame for that. We have done a lot, but not everyone has seen it,” Vucic said, adding that people have seen the changes in Belgrade and Nis, but not in Krusevac. According to Dnevnik, he wants to turn the Krusevac Covid hospital into a palliative care facility.
Vucic also announced the return of free dental services for all citizens, mentioning pensioners and children. He said:
“We will also introduce free dental services, we will bring them back, the ones the DOS people abolished in 2006, the same people who now want to return to power under a different name. And people will be able to go not only for emergency procedures, but to get their teeth fixed in the most normal way.”
The claim that “the DOS people” abolished the services in 2006 is Vucic’s own, and none of the sources on the rally checks it.
On medicines, the sources differ on the amounts. Tanjug records seven billion dinars for innovative medicines and six billion for treating rare diseases. In its transcript of the speech, Dnevnik has Vucic first saying six billion for innovative medicines, then adding “7 billion,” and earmarking six billion for rare diseases, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy. By his account, that disease would be treated with three kinds of medicine. In Krusevac he also said that in Novi Sad he could not remember all the rare diseases and important innovative medicines. Our earlier article on that rally recorded a figure of six billion dinars for Duchenne dystrophy.
Vucic added a claim about treatment outcomes:
“From November, the best medicines in the world will be in use for breast cancer, for lung cancer and for many other cancers, and we will be able to cure at least 15-20 percent more people than has been the case until today.”
Wages, roads and a hall for Krusevac
Vucic recalled that the average wage in Krusevac was 275 euros in 2014 and is now 902 euros. “Is that enough? No,” he said, then added that it is “3.5 times more.” The ratio of the two numbers is about 3.3. By his estimate, living standards have risen two to two and a half times once inflation is counted. He also said the company Kromberg & Schubert, which he personally brought to the city, employs 4,000 people.
According to Dnevnik, he promised Krusevac a new sports hall, a bridge over the Gaglovka, the completion of the second section of the bypass, and a road from Rosulja through Vukanja to Prokuplje, which would link the Rasina and Toplica districts. He also mentioned local roads in Cicevac, Varvarin, Aleksandrovac, Brus and Trstenik.
He told pensioners that pensions will rise “next year and every year after that,” without naming amounts. For schools and universities he announced “politics out of the universities, politics out of the schools,” and said ministers will have to work double and triple what they do now.
An invitation to Felinger for a TV duel
Part of the speech was addressed to Ginter Felinger, whom Vucic describes as a supporter of the Student List. Vucic claims he has been asking for a televised debate with representatives of that list for more than a month, but that they will not agree “for the life of them.” So, as he put it, he called on Felinger:
“Come, Ginter, to a television duel, I am waiting for you, in whatever language you want.”
Listing who backs whom, Vucic said his list is supported by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Student List by Felinger, Albin Kurti, Milo Djukanovic and Andrej Plenkovic. The sources on the rally contain no reply from Felinger or the Student List to the invitation.
Vucic ended the speech with a message about Republika Srpska, which, according to Dnevnik, he delivered like this: “We will never betray Republika Srpska, as they have already shown, even without power, that they are ready to do such things.” For the end of the campaign he announced a final big rally in Nis on Wednesday, “if I am not mistaken,” as he put it.
