The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has said that he regrets that he made the decision for Serbia to abandon lithium mining and that because of this he "feels like the stupidest president in the world".
Commenting on the protests organized by environmental activists outside the Serbian Government building in Belgrade, Vučić told Pink TV that the decision was not taken by the government, but by him personally.
"I don't understand why they protested in front of the government. When they protest, they should protest in front of the presidency and I will address them and politely tell them that they are the ones who are destroying the country. The price of lithium today is $82,500 per ton and our lithium reserves are worth 100 billion," he noted, adding that the city of Loznica would benefit 5 billion euros from lithium mining, but that citizens believed in the theories of conspiracy and that the leaders of the protest "were rewarded by foreign foundations".
"The leaders took the money and destroyed the country together with us who were stupid and naive to accept this insolence and this "force" that thought it could do everything and I'm sorry for that," said the Serbian president.