Several sources confirmed to "Vremena" that the visitors to the meeting did not pay the toll on the highway because they were going to the state-party meeting in Vranje on Tuesday (March 24), on the occasion of the anniversary of the NATO bombing.
"Honorary president" - that's what one of the interlocutors of "Vremen" said at the toll booth, who wasn't going to the meeting at all, but was coming towards Vranje from the direction of Preševo.
The rally was attended en masse by private vehicles, vans and buses from Kosovo and North Macedonia.
Those who arrived in Vranje earlier than necessary for the rally claim that they paid the toll.
JP "Roads of Serbia" responded with a statement on that occasion.
"Tolls were charged to all vehicles that used the Vranje toll station on the specified day, and the revenue was paid as a daily allowance," stated JP "Roads of Serbia" in a reply to the weekly "Vreme".
Photo: InfoVranjskeThe head of state in Vranje
Deserters from the meeting
In Vranje, around nine in the evening, while President Aleksandar Vučić was giving a speech, a large number of citizens left the meeting, because some of them, as they say, have been there since morning.
Vranje welcomed the gathering with make-up and wash, with freshly painted benches.
Many of those who were there did not do so voluntarily. Shifts were changed at the Yumko factory so that workers would not avoid going to the meeting, and a large number of workers from the Vranje Health Center were also seen at the meeting.
"Subtle Suggestions"
According to certain testimonies heard by the "Vremena" reporter, it was "subtly suggested" to people from public companies in temporary and casual jobs and with fixed-term contracts that "it would be good if they showed up at the meeting."
A teacher from a high school stated that in the educational institutions in Vranje, the directors exerted pressure to come to the meeting, but that it was all done "in secret", while those with permanent contracts did not receive such invitations.
Photo: InfoVranjskeWorkers of state enterprises in a column towards the center of Vranje
The editor of Radio Goraždevac, Darko Dimitrijević, pointed out that there is a mechanism by which Kosovo Serbs are blackmailed to attend rallies of the ruling party, and that they are generally not offered money but blackmailed with jobs.
"They work on work contracts or fixed-term work contracts and then blackmail them by extending those contracts, by forcing them to go to various rallies and gatherings under the 'service for service' system. In the sense that we hired you, and now you have to go to the meeting'. They don't threaten them, but they tell them that their contract will not be extended. As the editor of a small local media, many young people told him that they were in this problem," says Dimitrijević.
NOTE: The text was supplemented by the announcement of JP "Roads of Serbia" at 3:20 p.m. on March 25, 2026.
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