Vucic announces early parliamentary elections

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday parliamentary elections in the country would be called before the expiry of the term of the current parliament and that local elections in several municipalities would be held in five or six months.

"There will be early parliamentary elections. We will be going to those elections before the expiry of the term of the current parliament, and then the people will have an opportunity to assess the work of every one of us," Vucic said at the Palace of Serbia, responding to questions from reporters.

"In the elections, the citizens will decide whether we will live in a decent, normal Serbia," he said.

Vucic: Investment worth at least 750 mln euros lost due to General Staff campaign

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday Serbia had lost an investment worth at least 750 mln euros after US entrepreneur Jared Kushner had given up on plans to build a hotel in Belgrade in the wake of the "General Staff building campaign."

"Serbia has missed a great opportunity," Vucic told reporters after hosting a reception for Serb children from Vukovar, Croatia.

He said the campaign had begun as a "campaign in support of a blockader furore against people who are responsible and who do their job seriously."

The goal of the campaign was to "destroy Serbia, leave it without investors, without electricity, salaries, and to carry out general strikes and everything else to get Serbia off the list of successful countries," he said.

Vucic announced he would personally file criminal complaints against all those who had campaigned against the investment.

"Unfortunately for the country and the people, we are the big losers. We have lost an exceptional investment worth a minimum 750 mln euros. The total damage inflicted to us by the blockaders and the prosecutor's office is no less than 1.5 bln, in various ways," Vucic said.

Vucic: Important news on NIS due in coming days, we will not wait until January 15

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday he expected important news on Serbia's oil company NIS to arrive in the coming days and that he did not believe Belgrade would have to wait until January 15.

NIS is under US sanctions due to its Russian-majority ownership.

"I believe that next week, on Monday or Tuesday, we will receive important news. Hopefully, it will be good news for Serbian citizens," Vucic said at the Palace of Serbia, responding to questions from reporters.

He said that, for 68 days now, Serbia had not received "a single drop" of crude through the JANAF pipeline after Croatia had cut oil supplies due to the US sanctions, but that no one in Serbia had felt any crisis whatsoever.

"I am proud of the state of Serbia, which has demonstrated how it should be acting," he said, adding that the authorities had demonstrated an ability to "relieve the citizens of the burden" and had not shifted the blame on others.