How would anyone who would think of disrupting the peace and spirit of welcoming the respected political/economic delegation from the European Union and Germany fare like one unfortunate woman who got too close to the Palace of Serbia because she was in a hurry to get to work: nervous, young policemen shot her down on the ground, were excessively rude, took away her mobile phone, put her in a police car and drove away in an unknown direction. Everything was recorded by the N1 television camera.
However, there was no need for any major action in the blocked area. Citizens who oppose lithium mining have not heard a single word. No one even invited them to a protest, to at least let Chancellor Scholz know that not everyone is happy about what he came for.
Sava's message to Šolc
Zlatko Kokanović, the activist of the "Ne davimo Jadar" association, who was recently arrested due to the blockade of the railway near Loznica, said earlier that they will not come to Belgrade during the visit to Solac because "they will not fight with the police".
Several members of the Move - Change Movement called a meeting with journalists in front of the Palace of Serbia at 8 a.m., during which Savo Manojlović "told" German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to "leave lithium and democracy, and carry Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and stabilocracy." It is not known whether the message reached Scholz.
Manojlović also said that the announced mining of lithium in Serbia "violates the standards of democracy and European values", that it is "a concept against which we rise and a violation of the constitutional order and an attempt at a coup d'état". Several dozen people present enthusiastically approved his words.
Then he threatened that if there is unrest and civil disobedience, it will be the government's responsibility, and that today's signing of the memorandum is "poking a finger in the eye" of people who are fighting to preserve rivers because water is a strategic raw material that could save Serbia.
"Death sentence" for Dolina Jadra
At 9 o'clock, Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta also appeared, who also called a press conference at a safe distance from the place where the Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Serbia on strategic partnership on sustainable raw materials, battery production chains and electric vehicles will be signed.
His signing is a "death sentence for our magical Jadra valley", a fertile land that will be soaked by sulfuric acid, said Ćuta a little further from the policemen who blocked his way to the Palace of Serbia. No harsh words were spoken, nor was there any quarreling.
Then everyone dispersed.
For Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, it was very important that during the visit of high-ranking officials in Belgrade, not even an "o" could be seen from some kind of popular resistance to lithium mining, which he presents as a historical development opportunity for Serbia, so that something could call into question his lithium promise.
According to the New Serbian Political Thought survey, 55 percent of Serbian citizens oppose the "Jadar" project. The public opinion poll did not ask how many would be willing to do something concrete about it.
