Vučić: The charter flight to Tivat was organized by someone from my circle, it was a big political mistake

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said today that the charter flight with supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), who were not allowed to enter the country by Montenegrin police, was organized by someone from his entourage who wanted to make his stay in Tivat more pleasant, but that it was a "big political mistake", reports the Beta agency.

After arriving in Tivat, where the EU-Western Balkans Summit is taking place, he stated that people from his environment wanted to provide him with "a better environment that he would be happy with", and that out of the 87 returned to Serbia, "five of them had criminal records, which is a lower average than on a regular flight or bus".

Asked to name those who organized the disputed flight, Vučić said that it was an intra-party matter and that no one had bad intentions, but that he would "neither be guilty nor obligated to pay the political price."

"Stories about destabilization are meaningless... That's my business and ours, because they didn't commit any crime... And don't add things that didn't happen, because they didn't come armed... They didn't have weapons, nothing ugly or offensive, to me the 'Serbia is winning' banner is a nice message," Vučić said.

He criticized the media for publishing the personal data of the deportees, which Montenegrin services assessed as of security interest, and that the goal was to "present Serbia as a destabilizing factor."

He added that the Montenegrin state leadership could have avoided a diplomatic incident if it had contacted him and communicated the problem with him.

Regarding allegations that his safety was threatened by his arrival in Montenegro, due to the alleged presence of the head of the Kavač clan, Radoje Zvicer, he said that the records from the "Sky" application indicated that representatives of criminal clans were planning an assassination attempt on him, but that he did not see this as a reason to cancel his arrival at the summit.

He said that the Montenegrin leadership did not treat him in a hospitable manner, but that Serbs living in Montenegro reacted well to his visit.

"Serbia will always strive to build friendly relations with our citizens, regardless of the hybrid war waged by the Podgorica establishment and the Podgorica media," Vučić said.

Asked whether he would resign if Montenegro entered the EU before Serbia, he answered in the negative and added that he would congratulate the Montenegrins if that happened.

According to him, EU membership is important, but high salaries, pensions and low public debt are more important to him.

As reported by the Tanjug agency, Vučić said in Tivat that criminal clans from Montenegro wanted to pay someone to kill him, adding that this is also in the "Sky" recordings.

Vučić, responding to a journalist's question about his safety after the announcement that someone was preparing to kill him, and that one of the suspects had offered to pay someone to kill him back in 2021, said that these were clan leaders from Montenegro.

"It's not a big secret. You had it in the Sky records, so they downloaded it in the conversation records via the Sky application, so they asked for it from before, these are clan leaders from here. I don't see any big news here," Vučić said.

As he added, the problem also lies in the political tensions between Belgrade and Podgorica.

"When there are, and I would say often unnecessary, political tensions between Podgorica and Belgrade, everyone will say that the other is to blame. We all had to be much more rational and much more careful and take more care, but then when the accusations start, then there is no end to it. And the idea that criminals will do their job, well, that's their job, there is no God knows what philosophy there," said Vučić.