Savo Manojlović: Vučić pays silence for election theft with lithium and Kosovo

He has not yet taken part in the elections and many believe he missed his big chance in 2022 after he rose to prominence as one of the organisers of the protests against Rio Tinto. He sees the citizens' victory at the time as something few political players can boast about. Many criticised him for ending the protests in agreement with Vučić, but he rejects this by claiming that the government had met all demands at the time, making further blockades pointless. Two years later, lithium is back in the game and Savo Manojlović, campaign leader of the Kreni-promeni movement, is back again.

Recently, in an article for NIN, he initiated the "One in a Thousand" campaign to gather people willing to change Serbia. It could be that it is the basis of a future political organisation and a signal that Manojlović is preparing for some upcoming elections and concrete political engagement.

Noting that he has not been someone who hesitates so far, he says for NIN that when and if he decides to do so, he will come out clearly with this attitude.

"For change to take place in Serbia, the most important thing is that there is a structure of organised people, because nothing will be able to stop a thousand people who invest time in an idea, and they will be able to stop one person." "I want us to create this structure, and then it is not so important who will be the person who will be the symbol of these changes," Manojlović explains.

Why is the story of lithium mining in Serbia now in the foreground if no new government decision has been made regarding the Jadar project?

The citizens stopped this environmentally damaging project with the great victory they won with the blockades, but the battle for public opinion never stopped. The Serbian President, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić and other government representatives acted as lobbyists for Rio Tinto, they continued to mention and advocate for this project. They always mention it in times when there is no tension and as soon as there are protests, even the "Serbia against violence" protests, it is suddenly no longer mentioned. In interviews before the election and during the election campaign, the president did not mention lithium, and Brnabić explained that she had actually stopped this project, that some bad people from the previous government had put it there and this government had cancelled this project. This issue has never disappeared from the public space, and now we have gone public with the information that the President will revisit the story after his return from Davos. And that has really happened, which shows that the deadline that this government has is slowly running out.

Where did you get the information in advance that Vučić would talk about lithium mining at the presentation of the "Leap into the Future" programme?

I am not a journalist, but I use a good journalistic trait, which is to never reveal a source, especially if it is relevant. But the president could not have mentioned this project at all at the time, let alone in the months that followed, but he is obviously under pressure to push ahead with this project. And in the end he said, "I wasn't going to talk about lithium at all, as some have announced," while behind him was a presentation in which, among other things one had just seen - lithium. 

Why was it important to announce that he was going to talk about lithium? Why didn't you wait for him to tell it first and then comment and criticise the proposal?

Our media strategy in this battle can be summarised by the popular saying "prevention is better than cure".

Do you think you prevented anything by making the announcement?

I think the news has galvanised the public again. The President catches the public when it is knocked down and this is totally wrong behavior by the government. The Prime Minister and the President cannot say that they will listen to the people, that they will not pass amendments to the Expropriation Law, that they will amend the Referendum and Popular Initiative Law and cancel the Jadar Spatial Plan, and then wait the people are caught napping on the wrong foot. Serious statesmen do not do that.

Many believe that you have helped Vučić shift the public focus from the story of election theft to the story of lithium mining?

Lithium, like the Kosovo issue, is something that Vučić has to fulfil as compensation for the international community looking down on him for stealing the elections. He is returning the favor and I don't see how we are diverting the focus from election theft.

Speaking of lithium…

And we're directly linking lithium to election theft, so there's a connection, so to speak. I don't see this issue being a distraction. We had observers, documented 53 violations on election day, submitted a report to ProGlas representatives who petitioned the Constitutional Court to annul the election process. And now we are talking about election theft, we were quite active in proving it on election day itself.

We had 233 observers outside Kreni-Promeni and 1,000 trained monitors at the disposal of the opposition. They uncovered these election thefts, at 9am we came out with these findings, we said that day what will be clear to everybody the next day. And I think it was too late when you overslept. And we said: if Serbia goes to sleep that night without knowing the election result, it will wake up in a nightmare, and that's what really happened.

NIN / Milan Ilić

What is more important at this point, whether election theft has taken place or whether we will one day mine lithium?

I don't understand why we should choose between these two issues, as they are very closely linked. And I say: the fact that someone steals elections takes away his integrity towards the international factor.

How do you know what the American and Russian ambassadors want from the President of Serbia, considering you keep talking about how they are "setting him up", "pulling his ears out" and how "Ambassador Hill is asking him to bring up lithium issue again as a sign of gratitude for his silence on election manipulations?"

Ambassador Hill himself said that he was personally in favor of lithium mining. I consider this to be a direct interference in Serbia's interests, which should be decided by the local citizens and experts who have expressed their opinion on the project. Although the interests of their countries are strongly opposed, there was a high degree of synchronisation between the actions of the Russian and American ambassadors, and they seemed to agree on that. One comes out with the information that Western countries are behind the protests and that citizens should support Vučić and this government, thus appeasing the right-wing electorate, while Hill, which I think is rude, tells us to go home and rest, thus appeasing the civic electorate.

Okay, these are just your conclusions. Do you have more information?

We have certain information, but no evidence ... So it's normal for us to look at analyses, but of course we also have some information from the inside.

You are a lawyer. Is there any basis for Rio Tinto to sue Serbia and demand compensation, which is now rumored to be half a billion or even a billion euros?

We have already discussed this several times. Experts point out that it is not possible to extract and process lithium in Serbia in an environmentally friendly way. This means that you should reject the environmental study, but the President has said in advance that this is okay, even if he doesn't understand it. I don't understand it myself either, but I've spoken to people who do. There is a scientific rationale behind our initiative against lithium mining, signed by 60 scientists, professors and three academics and SANU expertly explained in its proceedings why it is impossible to do it in an environmentally sustainable way. 

There are also more acute environmental problems such as Bor. Isn't it more important to deal with this problem more actively than with lithium, which is still in the future planning stage?

When I was born, there was a mine in Bor and now that the population is already working in the mines, you can ask the investor there to introduce the highest environmental standards and protect workers' rights. There are many problems in Serbia and it is now the same as asking why lithium and not elections, why this and not that. I don't see the need to choose between these. We are ready to take part in other struggles and help other people to bring about change in their environment.

The Serbian president says that the decision regarding lithium lies with the new government. What are your first steps if the future government announces that it will push ahead with the Jadar project?

We will see if the government will make such a decision. The president is afraid, which means he is basing his decisions on two things. On the one hand, there is international pressure and ambassadors, and on the other, there are public opinion polls on lithium that don't look good for him because even his electorate is against it. It's up to us whether we allow the government to go for it, but they won't make that decision so easily. The President said it doesn't depend on him and I agree with him. Lithium mining does not depend on the president, it depends on us, the citizens.

NIN / Milan Ilić

Do you see yourself as a presidential candidate in 2027?

It's not something I would do now and what fascinates me, I'm much more interested in the outcome. That in a few years I can see this country as a country where we walk through green fields, just as we walk today in some parks that we have defended, to walk in Jadar. I would like to see a functioning justice system that reacts in such a way that no one gets the idea of organising election theft. I would like people from different political groups to be prosecuted, not only from this one, but also from the previous ones, people who are responsible for political corruption and political pressure on the media. I would like Verica Barać's report from 2012 to be opened, in which she clearly described the pressure on the media and the way in which the former and current government structures were involved in this.

You also criticised the opposition's reaction after the end of election day. How is the cooperation with the opposition parties?

We have emphasized that one of the most important things is to come out with a projection of the election results after the vote. And we can say what we want, but the "parent company" of the SNS, SRS announced the exact results an hour after the election, even though it lost the election as the opposition. Other people sympathetic to the opposition, such as Boban Stojanović, emphasised this. So you can't just moan if you haven't done enough yourself. It is undisputed that there has been election theft, the essential question is what this other party can do to prevent it.

SSP Vice President Marinika Tepić accuses you of using every opportunity to attack the opposition and that you ended the protests against Rio Tinto in agreement with Vučić?

I think that energy should be used to deal with specific issues. My focus is on election theft, preventing the ecological destruction caused by lithium mining and the displacement of the population, as well as the closure of Serbian municipalities, which is being prepared in Kosovo. Any participation in personal discussions takes the focus and attention away from these issues. I do not believe that I personally or any of us are more important than these three issues.

Kreni-promeni and I will deal exclusively with these issues and other problems that affect citizens in the coming period and will promote these issues, not personal discussions. I don't want to argue with opposition representatives because I particularly appreciate people who support or are involved in opposition parties. Many of these people are part of protests and struggles that we have organised or supported. Because of them, we should discuss problems and solutions and not react to someone's personal attacks.