05.10.2022.
Minister Stefanović: Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbia will succeed in defending Kosovo and Metohija
Statement of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Nebojša Stefanović PhD:
“Several writers of proclamations for the defence of Kosovo and Metohija have been doing it almost professionally for decades now. Seemingly, several of them do not know what it is that they do thinking that they are an NGO and petition initiators, while in reality they are politicians and members of parliament. The third group of them consists of the people who indeed are from some NGOs or they are “free” intellectuals, but they would like to be in power, to command the armed forces or police if possible. All of them, no matter how much they differ, desire just one thing. And that is not Kosovo and Metohija that is part of Serbia, and it is not righting historical injustice, but their desire is exclusively political and that is to overthrow Aleksandar Vučić. They do not want to take his place and make decisions; they would appoint someone else to run the state so that they could “defend” Kosovo and Metohija from the sidelines, hidden by petitions and proclamations, since that is the only way they know to wage this fight.
In fact, the man against whom they write such pamphlets has done impossible with his amazing persistence, patriotism and statesman skills - he has brought back the fate of Kosovo and Metohija to negotiating table, where no solution can be adopted without Serbia. It is precisely Aleksandar Vučić, attacked by the signatories of the proclamation, who retrieved the matter of Kosovo and Metohija from the abyss into which the “fighters” for Serbia and its sovereignty have thrown it, and that is why their pamphlet is vile imputing which would not deserve any reaction if it were not what it is.These people are not teenagers, and they have years and years of public and political engagement, and they know very well that they were many times in situation to defend Kosovo and Metohija. Particularly those who spent many years in power and had all the levers to do it, but they did not want to, they did not know how, and they were not brave. Today, all of them have no shame to come out with some kind of proclamation and give lessons in the state interest to a man who has managed making superhuman efforts to bring back Kosovo and Metohija to the terrain of agreements and negotiations, though it was almost over and disastrous for Serbia.
Vuk Jeremić is one of them, and he is directly responsible for the initiative presented to the International Court of Justice on the basis of which the so-called Kosovo got the legal grounds for the unilateral proclamation of independence. That is a man, who under the pretext of the “fight for Kosovo and Metohija” lobbied all over the world for his own business and his functions, at the expense of our citizens. Miloš Ković is among them as well, who persuades young Serbs as cool as can be that they should die for Kosovo and Metohija, but not him or someone from the company that he keeps, because they, naturally, are to fight more important battle in Belgrade. There is also Boško Obradović, who did not present any idea for Kosovo and Metohija both in the parliament, and in front of President Vučić, because he has none, so he rushed to write petitions and pamphlets. Miloš Jovanović is also there, whose administration and prime minister ruled this country exactly at the time when Serbian people suffered pogrom and when the Albanians unilaterally proclaimed independence and the only response they were able to come up with were the demonstrations and setting Serbian capital on fire.
And the fact, gentlemen, that you mention foreign ambassadors who supposedly influence Serbian policy, speaks only about you and your projection of how you would behave if you were in power, and in particular how you behaved in past when you were in power, when ambassadors were indeed satisfied with your decisions. The first and the only time when Serbia makes its own decisions not allowing any interference is the age of Aleksandar Vučić and you know it very well. It is not by chance that ambassadors have not been satisfied with Vučić for years now, and yet Serbia at the same time manages to achieve all important national interests, including those related to Kosovo and Metohija, which was, owing to you, considered by many in the world as the case closed to the detriment of Serbia.
This pamphlet is yet another personal shame of each of you individually and of you as a group that would like to defend Kosovo and Metohija with gusle and war drums, where all of you would stay in Belgrade to do the only thing that you know to do, to write communiques and proclamations. That is not the defence of Kosovo and Metohija, that is just your barren desire to make it to the list of all those who are trying to exert pressure on President Vučić in decisive days for Serbia, only to see him gone. You should have learnt by now that it will not happen, and that Kosovo and Metohija will be defended owing to the steadfast and wise statesman policy of Aleksandar Vučić, who, unlike you, holds both Kosovo and Metohija, and our entire Serbia in his heart, and first and foremost the duties that he was tasked to perform by the people”.
