Fico: I support Vucic because he is not letting Serbia be run from abroad

NOVI SAD - Addressing a rally of the Aleksandar Vucic-United Serbia electoral list in Novi Sad on Friday evening, Slovak PM Robert Fico said Vucic was defending Serbia's sovereignty and not letting the country be run by someone abroad, however mighty they might be.

A large number of people who had gathered on Novi Sad's Freedom Square welcomed Fico with a thunderous applause and chants of "Serbia - Slovakia" and "Kosovo is Serbia."

Fico delivered his speech in Serbian.

"Who said I am not coming? Here I am!" he said.

He added that Vucic had worked hard to make Serbia a successful and rich country and had not been ashamed to apply something he had seen others do, once he had realised that doing so could benefit his own country.

"And he has succeeded in that: the Serbian economy is making large strides, more strongly than many others in Europe. Elections are the moment when you decide whether you want Serbia to keep going like this, standing upright and in an unwavering manner, which is not an easy thing to do in these challenging times. It takes being a real leader, a leader with a spine, to know how to say 'no' for the sake of your own country's interests when others request you to think and do the same as they do," Fico noted, adding that that was the reason why he supported Vucic.

"He is not letting Serbia be run by someone in the world, however mighty they might be. He is defending Serbia's sovereignty of making its own choices. You cannot put a price on sovereignty," Fico said.

"Preserve peace, preserve stability, and also preserve the progress that you have. The times are too tough for you to choose uncertainty," he said.