SRCE: All election participants must state a clear position on lithium mining

The “Srbija centar” (SRCE) party demands that all political forces taking part in the October 25 parliamentary elections state a clear position on the issue of lithium mining, as the newspaper Danas reports. According to the party’s council for energy and mining, this is the optimal moment for everyone to take a stand, since the issue “is pressing ever more seriously on the everyday life of society in Serbia.”

“The time has come for Serbia to close this issue once and for all according to the majority will of its citizens,” SRCE’s statement, quoted by Danas, says. The party stresses that it has itself taken a “crystal clear” stance: banning lithium mining and the “Jadar” project, aligning itself with “the bloc of the majority of Serbia against this project.”

SRCE’s council accuses the authorities of thinking “the opposite of the majority of Serbia” on this issue and says officials such as parliament speaker Ana Brnabić and outgoing minister of mining and energy Dubravka Đedović-Handanović “have for years been trying unsuccessfully to explain to citizens all the benefits of the ‘Jadar’ project.”

SRCE also recalls what it calls the authorities’ “deception” ahead of the 2023 parliamentary elections, when — under great public pressure — it was declared that the “Jadar” project had been withdrawn for good, but “after the new government was formed they tried to revive it with open doors.” “There is no doubt they would try again if they stayed in power after October 25 as well,” the statement says.