Dacic: I offered Vucic premiership several times

BELGRADE - Ivica Dacic, prime minister in the outgoing Serbian government and leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), has said that he asked First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic several times if he wanted to become prime minister without calling elections but Vucic told him it was not a goal of his.

Who knows how many times I met with Vucic and President Tomislav Nikolic, but never in a secret meeting, Dacic said for a holiday edition of Belgrade-based daily Blic, commenting on a speculation about a secret Vucic-Nikolic-Dacic meeting, where Dacic allegedly offered Vucic the premiership without the need for elections.

“We are not conspirators, but the most senior state officials and there is no reason for us to secretly meet with each other. Let alone discuss secretly about elections that are the most public and the most democratic way of expressing the will of citizens,” Dacic said.

Asked whether he sees himself in the future government and whether he would accept being defense minister, Dacic said that he “sees himself in these elections” and he is offering people a clear policy and a “way for us (Serbia) to 'live in a normal world'.”

Asked about who he thinks Serbia depends on at the moment - Catherine Ashton, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama - Dacic said:

“Serbia depends on ourselves, on you and on me and on that which we will do. Neither Angela, nor Putin nor others live here. They have their own interests, but they neither can nor want to change anything in Serbia. Only we can do that.”

He said that reforms are no longer a political issue but a necessity, as without them, Serbia can only collapse.

Asked whether the April 19 agreement on Kosovo...