The Serbian President: I won’t flee like Bashar al Assad!

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday accused foreign intelligence services of trying to overthrow him amid protests in the country, and said he would not flee Serbia like Syrian President Bashar al Assad did.

In a video posted on his Instagram account, Vucic said, “I will defend Serbia and serve only my people and all citizens… I will never be at the service of foreign powers seeking to defeat, humiliate and destroy our country”.

Vucic’s critics have compared him to Bashar al Assad and other authoritarian leaders, speculating that he might try to flee if he loses his grip on power, amid protests that erupted after the collapse of a railway station roof in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, which killed 15 people on November 1.

Protesters in Novi Sad, Belgrade and other cities point to rampant corruption as a major cause of the accident, saying poorly executed renovation work at the station, which was part of a broader deal with Chinese companies, led to the disaster.

Vucic added that the protests, which were recently joined by university students, are funded by Western parties with the aim of destabilizing and overthrowing his government, through hybrid methods that seek to undermine the country’s stability.

“If they think I am like a lion and will run away, they are wrong; I won’t do that,” Vucic declared.

He explained that in the coming days and weeks he will reveal in detail the amount of money spent over the past four years to destroy Serbia and make it a dependent state that doesn’t have its own decision or future, but rather follows orders from abroad.