Ana Brnabic, Serbia’s Prime Minister, said on Wednesday she would not consider the #1in5 million anti-government protesters’ demand for her resignation, since, according to her, it came from the people who “want to cancel democracy with violence in the streets,” the Beta news agency reported.
Speaking in the town of Kragujevac, Brnabic said she understood the request for her to step down as “an ultimatum.”
“I’m not scared by either gallows, or threats, or chain saws,” she said, alluding to the props that the demonstrators held when they stormed the building of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS).
“We respect democracy. Serbia is a society of decent and normal people, and we will never cede to an ultimatum issued by bullies and fascists. My answer to their demand is – no,” Brnabic said.
She added that “they (the protesters) don’t have to wait for April 13th but can continue to threaten us now with the blocking the Government building or my house. We won’t accept any ultimatums,” she reiterated.
On another note, Brnabic added that she has been negotiating with the World Bank regarding the allocation of $42 million for the Serbian Science Fund within the next three years.
Additional resources are expected to come from the EU’s pre-accession funds (IPAs).
Brnabic went on to say that 100 million euro will be invested in infrastructure, research and development, innovation, start-up centres, entrepreneurship, science and technology parks in Nis and Novi Sad.
She also announced that the first start-up centre would be opened in the town of Cacak in the next few weeks.
Branbic added, that on January 1st, the government introduced special tax incentives for investments in startups, science and education.
“If you create intellectual property, copyright it in the Republic of Serbia and export it, from January 1, the income tax on any profit generated from such export stands at 3 per cent, instead of the standard 15 per cent. In this way, Serbia will become one of the most competitive countries in Europe for research and development,” Brnabic concluded.
(Novi Magazin, 27.03.2019)
This post is also available in: Italiano