Vucic Attacks Student List Over Draft and Israel
Lead candidate Aleksandar Vucic United Serbia claims in a video that foreign services are dismantling the defense sector. His targets are Predrag Petrovic and Filip Ubovic.
On Thursday, November 12, Aleksandar Vucic, lead candidate of the Aleksandar Vucic United Serbia list, accused the Student List and the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCBP) of dismantling Serbia’s defense and security sector on the orders of foreign intelligence agencies. He posted the video on Instagram on the same morning that BCBP research director Predrag Petrovic appeared on RTS’s Morning Program to discuss reform of the security services. Vucic also took aim at the Student List’s defense platform, mainly its stance on military service and on Israel.
What did Vucic say in the video?
Vucic argued that those who won the elections want to hide the real truth, that is, to tear apart the Serbian state and its military, defense and security sector. On Instagram he wrote:
The dismantling of our defense and security sector has begun. And all of it on the orders of foreign intelligence agencies.
In the video itself he spoke about non-governmental organizations that, he claims, hold the main levers of power:
All the main roles in the persecution of those who think differently, of those who protected the state, all the levers have been taken over by non-governmental organizations.
Vucic then mentioned “a certain Petrovic” from BCBP and concluded that NGOs “paid from abroad” are demanding the disbanding of the security and intelligence sector. He faulted the students for proposing to scrap the planned 75-day military service, “so that the barracks stay empty,” and for wasting the money invested in them. He described the attitude toward foreign partners this way:
And on top of everything, we learned from yet another one of them that they will not cooperate with Israel, that they will not cooperate with China, that they will not cooperate with those who have the most powerful armies and the most powerful weapons and equipment in the world. What does that look like to you, to whom are we handing over the state, and from whom, and how, will we be able to protect and defend ourselves?
He also asked whether this reminded people of the period from 2000 to 2012.
What did Petrovic say on RTS?
On the Morning Program, Petrovic called for a thorough reform of the security sector. Among the key steps he listed were stripping the security and intelligence services of police powers and moving the technical center for intercepting communications out of the Security Information Agency (BIA), modeled on Hungary, where a separate technical center operates on requests from institutions and on the basis of court orders. He said:
Security and intelligence services do not need police powers to do their job effectively.
He also addressed allegations that BIA wiretapped prosecutors in the canopy collapse case, journalists, trade unionists, activists and opposition representatives. If those allegations are confirmed, he said, the agency’s director and the political figures who influenced security policy should bear responsibility. He was sharper about the service itself:
The Security Information Agency was not a security and intelligence service, but a secret political police.
He added: “Just as a para-prosecutorial system was created, so a para-security system was created.”
What does the Student List propose for the military?
According to the Student List’s published program, mandatory military service is not mentioned. Instead, it proposes voluntary service lasting six months, with about 3,000 volunteers a year. They would receive at least 20,000 dinars a month, with the service counted toward their work record, and between 25 and 30 percent would move into the professional ranks of the Serbian Army afterward. The program also provides for an active reserve of about 3,000 reservists on standing contracts, modernization of the army and better material conditions for members of the armed forces. It further announces the reopening of certain past cases, among them the deaths of guardsmen in Topcider and the crash of an Mi-17 military helicopter.
The mandatory 75-day service that Vucic refers to was announced by the previous government. The Student List’s program says nothing about it, so the claim that the students are abolishing it differs from what the document states.
Ubovic and the drone factory
In the video Vucic also referred to a statement by Filip Ubovic, a student at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON) and a representative of the student movement, who spoke in Aron Bastani’s podcast about the new government’s attitude toward Israel. Part of the conversation had earlier been shared on social media. Ubovic said:
Our program says that we will stop the arms trade with Israel. Vucic was quite close to the Israelis, and they also built a drone factory, which is outrageous. That is something that must be stopped.
Ubovic did not say which factory he meant or where it is located, and none of the outlets that carried his statement specifies it either.
As of publication, no response from Predrag Petrovic, BCBP or the Student List to Vucic’s claims has been recorded.
