PM Vucic: New Prime Minister to be appointed soon, demonstrations are insignificant

PM Vucic said on Monday that Serbia will have a new PM in a month and that he has shortlisted two or three candidates for the position.
Commenting the statement of Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who said on Monday that he will ask for resignations of the key people at the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), PM Vucic said that he laughed at that statement.

“All the people appointed by the Democratic Party are still in RTS and they have the last say. It is funny to see someone taking five minutes of the national news time on RTS for barely gathering 50 people to protest. Am I always happy with how RTS reports? No, I am not, but those who are in charge make the decisions,” said Vucic on Monday, after a meeting with the Patriarch of Serbian Orthodox Church, Irinej.

Minister Vulin previously announced that he will request the dismissal of the RTS management because “they are more concerned about what people shout in the street than about the interests of the state.”

“If there are a hundred people protesting, then it is one hundred, not one thousand as stated in a three-minute TV report,” said Minister Vulin. He added that he will discuss with his coalition partners whether there will be dismissal of editors and directors of the Radio Television of Serbia.

His idea about resignations is motivated by the fact that “the leadership of RTS should not be afraid of protesters.” He opined that the protests against the Government are not covered objectively in the media.

Vulin also stated that the RTS started reporting differently about the protest as soon as the protesters started demanding the dismissal of the management of RTS.

“From the moment the protesters started demanding resignations of the key people at RTS, this television started giving them media attention.

During the holidays, there were only a couple of hundreds of people protesting in the streets, but they still had a couple of minutes in the news,” said Vulin on TV Pink. Vulin also said that the RTS has not transformed as other public companies in Serbia have.

Dissatisfied citizens have protested in Serbia since 3rd April over pre-election presidency campaign and general conditions in Serbian society. In the protest march in Belgrade, protesters also pass by the building of RTS demanding resignations of the key people of Radio Television of Serbia and Radio Television of Vojvodina.

Citizens are dissatisfied with the reporting of these two national TV stations because they favour PM Vucic and the ruling Progressive Party.

 Protesters: We are not fighting for the “change of seats”

Insajder received an e-mail from the “Against the Dictatorship” protesters who state the protests will continue.

“We can only understand Minister Aleksandar Vulin’s announcement of the dismissal of the RTS management for reporting about protests as a conflict “within the family.” We emphasize that we are not fighting for replacing people in responsible positions of RTS editorial and management by those who will only turn the public broadcaster into tabloid news,” stated the protesters.

 Insajder