"They're using Seselj to punish us" - PM

"They're using Seselj to punish us" - PM

BELGRADE -- According to Aleksandar Vucic, "somewhere, someone" has mistakenly calculated that Vojislav Seselj was a factor that can shake him and the government.

In an op-ed he penned for the daily Politika, the prime minister added that for this reason, "someone" has started using Seselj as "a scarecrow from a box."

"There is no right or justice, and unfortunately, no Vojislav Seselj there. There's just the wrong attempts to punish the Serbian government and its policy," said Vucic, commenting on Monday's announcement from The Hague that Seselj must return to the detention unit.

According to Vucic, "the whole Balkans, after all it went through, needs a policy of open cards, a clear and unambiguous one."

The prime minister added that he and the government of Serbia intend to implement "precisely such an unequivocal policy."

"It is our ID and I can show it to anyone, at any time without any fear. I have no intention of hiding it... after I won the election. So today, I can calmly say to others to stop hiding behind boxes inside boxes, and to instead come out before the citizens of Serbia and say what it is they want from them," wrote Vucic.

According to him, "Serbia has only one major and great obligation and that is to maintain stability, ensure the continuation of economic reforms and respect for political freedoms."

"Every decision we make - and it will not be immoral like all the political decisions of the Hague Tribunal - will have only one goal, to maintain stability in our Serbia and nothing more," Vucic said in the piece the daily ran under the headline, "They're using Seselj to punish us."