“I am young, but unpredictable”: Vučić announces pardons and amnesty in final RTS interview before tonight’s resignation

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, invited at noon today to RTS’s “Za stolom sa Apostolom,” gave his final interview as head of state just hours before his announced resignation tonight at around 20:00, as RTS reports.

“I woke up early today, before 4 a.m. I couldn’t sleep,” Vučić said at the start of the interview, adding that he had received Serbian boxers, was wrapping up work at the Presidency and was still working “on pardon and amnesty decisions.” According to Telegraf’s reporting, the Serbian president said the pardons and amnesty would cover “people who took part in everything that has happened recently” — some with court rulings, others without — and that there would be cases “from both sides,” warning that “many will be surprised.” “I think this will bring peace,” Vučić was quoted as saying, in a statement coming on the eve of his departure from the Presidency.

On his mandate, Vučić said: “I said I would leave on my own — and so it happened. I leave proud of the results, because no one can take them away. Neither Expo, nor Belgrade on Water, nor 684 kilometers of highways, 243 kilometers of new railway and 880 reconstructed, 5–6 new science-technology parks, over 250 healthcare facilities, innovative medicines for children.” He also admitted mistakes: “I know I have erred — I am only a simple man. In daily decisions you err, of course. I hope I have become more mature and more serious,” he stressed, calling the preservation of peace and stability the most important thing in his years as president.

In the interview, as RTS reports, Vučić also used the appearance to repeat accusations against the authorities in Pristina, saying that “Kurti and his people are again arresting Serbs for fabricated war crimes” — an unsubstantiated claim coming against the backdrop of today’s operation in Zubin Potok, where according to reports nine people suspected of war crimes were arrested.

Tonight’s resignation, at around 20:00, formally closes Vučić’s mandate as president of Serbia, which he has held since 2017. By law, the acting presidency passes to the parliament speaker, Ana Brnabić, while Vučić enters the campaign as an ordinary candidate of the “Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia” list for the snap parliamentary elections of October 25.