Serbian PM Uses Budget Debate to Bash Opposition

Vucic repeatedly lashed out at opposition MPs in the parliamentary chamber on Monday and Tuesday during sessions held to discuss next year's budget.

He accused the far-right Dveri party of trying, with the help of the US ambassador to Belgrade, to rig this year's parliamentary elections, which his own Serbian Progressive Party won.

"To rig the elections, you hired foreign ambassadors in Serbia. Despite your claims to oppose foreign influence in Serbia, you hired the US ambassador in Serbia, Kyle Randolph Scott, to help you with the elections," Vucic told Dveri's leader, MP Bosko Obradovic.

During the debate, Vucic also mocked Obradovic's Western Serbian accent, sparking outrage on Twitter, where some commentators said that he was mocking half of the country.

While arguing with Obradovic, Vucic also said that the Dveri MP was illiterate and therefore could not understand the draft budget for 2017.

He further implied that Obradovic was abusive towards women, saying that he heard rumours in the Serbian town of Cacak, where the MP comes from, that he could be "violent towards females".

In another incident during the first part of the budget session in parliament on Monday, Vucic also slammed opposition MPs from the Enough is Enough party who held up drawings of Pinocchio, suggesting that the data on the Serbian economy and the new budget presented by the prime minister were false.

Vucic responded by saying they were all mentally ill.

"Sigmund Freud would not be able to help here, it is very hard to find help for you," he told the Enough is Enough MPs.

"You should be ashamed of what are you are doing in parliament," he added.

Unusually, Vucic came to parliament to present the budget to MPs himself, instead of...