Vučević re: the protest: I would be lying if I said there weren't many people; Demands of the gathered unclear

Prime Minister of Serbia, Miloš Vučević, said today that it is indisputable that there were a lot of people at yesterday's protest in Slavija square, but that he did not fully understand the demands of those gathered, and that in the end the key demand will be for Serbia to get a transitional government.

"There were a lot of people and whoever said it wasn't like that wouldn't be telling the truth. When I say a large number of people, if someone gathers 25,000 to 30,000 or 35,000 people, that's a big gathering and I don't know why the organizers or participants would be ashamed of those numbers," he told TV Pink.

He estimated that in the end everything will come down to the fact that a transitional government will be sought.

"They want to show that the institutions are not functioning, they want to paralyze the state and that is why the way out of this situation is a transitional government. Now there is one problem, they will never get a mandate to form a transitional government from the President of the Republic, that is their problem", said Vučević yesterday, adding that ''we from SNS will never vote for such a government," he said.

He added that one can only talk about the elections and that the MPs of the Serbian Progressive Party will never vote for any transitional government.

"They hope that a new Gonzalez will come, or as it has been happening since 1997, and that someone will force the state leadership of Serbia so that it would be good and useful to create a transitional government. However, they are making a cardinal political mistake. In the protests of 1996 and in 1997, the main motive was the election result, that is, the failure to recognize the electoral victory of the opposition in several cities. Now the socio-political circumstances are different," he said.

He added that the situation is completely different today and that in the last two election cycles, the party around SNS, i.e. Aleksandar Vučić, won convincing victories in the republican, provincial and local elections and gained full legitimacy to lead the country and all levels of government.

"Then we have a terrible tragedy, the accident on November 1 in Novi Sad, and some people gave themselves the right to ask to lead the country on the wave of an accident. It's not the first time," he pointed out.

He stated that one of the most important roads collapsed in Brazil and that there were also fatalities, but that this is no justification when it is said that such things happen in other countries as well.

"It's just an indication that Serbia is not a unique case, so the state should be brought down and all institutions in the country collapsed because a tragedy happened. That was my message when I spoke about the whole event. We cannot bring down the state because of a tragedy. Tragedy is a call to unity and solidarity," he said.