Top officials urge Serbs to vote in elections

Source: Beta

BELGRADE -- Top Serbian officials have urged Serbs in Kosovo to vote in local elections on Sunday, saying that only a high turnout would ensure their "survival" there.

(Beta, file)

"Your Serbia is calling you and wants to help you to, with your children, live in your home, on your property, safely and with hope in the eyes. Do not make a mistake, the mistake we would never be able to correct."
"Be accountable to your descendants. Long live Serbia."

This is the content of a joint statement issued on Friday by President Tomislav Nikolić, Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, and his First Deputy Aleksandar Vučić.

They also said that the Serbs "after years of defeat, anxiety and uncertainty" were provided with an opportunity for the Serb communities in Kosovo to win and create a community through which to remain inextricably linked to the state of Serbia.

"The Serb community as a rigid structure recognized by the international community, the first of our institutions for which no one will say that it is parallel, in the case of electoral success, would not only be established, but recognized, respected and honored," said Nikolić, Dačić, and Vučić.

Vučić said on Friday at the final rally of the Civic Initiatives Srpska in the enclave of Gračanica: "No state can be good only when it pays salaries and pensions, and bad if it asks (you) to go to the polls in order to get an international verification and confirmation of the existence of the community of Serb municipalities. "