29.07.2022.
Minister Stefanović on Croatia’s shameful campaign against President Vučić
Statement by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Nebojša Stefanović, PhD:
“Those who look back and sleep restlessly, who are tortured by images of the children killed in Jasenovac and other concentration camps and hundreds of thousands of victims and their wandering souls, those who expelled Serbs from their centuries-old homes and burned their icons cannot bear it. That is why they have to call someone else a criminal. Those who cannot bear the intense, sick and inherent hatred, who cannot take a single breath without hating Serbs and Aleksandar Vučić, fail to control their pathological, centuries-old, deeply ingrained and carefully nurtured drive towards destruction and project it onto Vučić and the Serbian people.
It is difficult to be an heir to a bloody legacy bequeathed by the Nazi Independent State of Croatia. This is a severe trauma and they must feel the need to vent. And who better to take it out on than President Vučić? But this will not absolve them from responsibility for the death of 700,000 people in Jasenovac, nor will it erase the truth. Nor will it stop Vučić from telling the truth even more loudly. It is almost pointless to comment on the base attempts of the Croatian media to demonize Aleksandar Vučić in every possible way over the past several months. The fact that they draw caricatures of Vučić and call him names is just another proof of the low level of their political struggle and the lack of arguments against Vučić. In their brutal texts, they insult him by attacking what is most sacred to him, his ancestors, the victims of Jasenovac, and they also include a family photo in the text, which shows that these people have not changed a bit from the ones who considered "srbosek" (knife for killing Serbs) a true measure of their relationship with the Serbian nation. They are the ones who have prohibited Aleksandar Vučić from paying tribute to the Jasenovac victims, children, women and old people whose only crime was being Serbs. They are the ones suffering from inferiority complex caused by Aleksandar Vučić and Serbia.
Our wise people say, "If you want to be hated, tell everyone what you think of them." That is why they hate Aleksandar Vučić. Because he has the strength and guts to tell the truth to everyone's face, because he can stand up to everyone with a clear conscience and fight for truth and justice. Because he has vowed that we will never forget the victims of Jasenovac, Stara Gradiška, Sisak and other camps where genocide was committed against our people. Because thanks to him, we commemorate the anniversary of Operation Storm and mourn its victims every August 4, whereas his predecessors tried to make Serbs forget this ethnic cleansing, the biggest one in modern Europe. Because he knows how to say "sorry" to the victims of the Nazi camps for whom a new memorial centre is being built at Staro Sajmište. Because he is a great man and statesman who loves his country, who lives for his people and fights for them.
And love excludes hatred towards your neighbour. He demonstrates this by pursuing a policy of peace towards our neighbours, helping everyone when they are in trouble, pursuing a strategic policy of progress in the region. And that is where his greatness as a human being and a politician lies. That is why he will continue to fight for his country with the huge support of his people."
