Presidential candidate Radulovic: The main motivation is to defeat PM Vucic in the presidential race

Drawing a parallel between the elections to be held on 2nd April and those held in October 2000 when Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was ousted, Radulovic said that Serbian society is on the verge of referendum again, which he strongly supports.

“People did not vote for Vojislav Kostunica in October 2000. They voted against Slobodan Milosevic, and that is how he was ousted from the office. These presidential elections are also the elections for introducing a systematic change,” Radulovic told Insajder, adding that Serbia is in the media blackout.

“Our main motivation to participate in these elections is the defeat of the PM Vucic. Only when he loses the elections, Serbia can move forward.”

Radulovic started his political career in 2013, when Aleksandar Vucic, the Minister of Defense at the time, invited him to join the Serbian Government and become the Minister of Economy. In 2014, he and Vucic split due to disagreements on numerous issues. Radulovic formed his movement “Enough is Enough,” which is currently a parliamentary party with 13 out of 250 seats in the Assembly.

Radulovic said that he supported the idea of having one candidate to represent the opposition, but other leaders of the opposition parties could not agree on who should run for the office.

“There is a fundamental difference between one and more opposition candidates. We in the movement “Enough is Enough” thought we should have only one candidate to represent the opposition, but that idea was never implemented. Therefore, I have also entered the presidential race. I think that my and Whitey the Flip-Flopper’s participation in the race will result in a higher turnout of citizens at the polling stations,” he said.

“After the elections, we can have political disagreements with the new president, but in the first phase, it is paramount to win the elections and not let the PM Vucic win.”

The leader of “Enough is Enough” movement repeated that any candidate who gets into the second round of the elections against the PM Vucic will have his unconditional support. Radulovic also accused PM Vucic for media blackout in Serbia, claiming that the government uses tabloids to smear the opposition.

“Fear is growing among citizens. The PM Vucic uses certain media to clash with the opposition. All those attacks on the media and the opposition are coming from one master mind – the PM Aleksandar Vucic,” he said.

Radulovic recalled that, two years ago, he filed civil charges against PM Vucic for slander, but he has not been summoned by the court yet.

The EU is hypocritical towards Serbia

Presidential candidate Radulovic said that the EU policy towards Serbia is hypocritical. The PM Vucic and his government have the EU’s support only because “he does the job for them.”

“I think that Serbia’s accession to the EU is a failed project. The Chapters are opening and some have even been closed, but nothing has changed in Serbia’s system. That shows the hypocrisy of the EU,” said Radulovic.

“When the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, came to find the Serbian Parliament suspended and still said that everything was fine, that is also hypocrisy. How can she say that we are going in the right direction when the Parliament is suspended?” argued Radulovic.

In the beginning of March, the Chairwoman of the Parliament from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, Maja Gojkovic, canceled all sessions until the end of the elections. She justified her decision by saying that Serbia needs stability, and she would not allow the misuse or abuse of the Assembly for presidential campaigns.

“Serbia’s goal is not to become a member of some organization, but to become a normal country. We should not break contracts with the EU, we should improve them,” stated Radulovic.

Radulovic also said that the public and the opposition do not know what PM Vucic has signed with Pristina during the talks under the EU supervision in Brussels. “Our position about Kosovo is clear – it is a part of Serbia. The Resolution 1244, which was adopted by the Security Council of the UN, clearly shows that this territory is still legally and formally a part of Serbia. This Resolution is not applied just because some big powers decided not to implement it,” claims Radulovic.

“We should see what our interests in Kosovo are. We should first secure our interests and property in Kosovo. The issue of Kosovo should be solved through talks,” concluded Radulovic.

Danica Vucenic