Vucic: I was the one under surveillance, but I did not complain

Aleksandar Vucic says he knows what surveillance feels like. The Serbian president told reporters that he had been monitored when he was an opposition leader, and that the practice continued illegally after he became president. Yet, he said, he never made a public issue of it or went after anyone in the Security Intelligence Agency, known as the BIA.

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They voiced their suspicions without a single shred of evidence. They even admitted themselves that they cannot prove it.

His comments came after Serbia’s student movement accused the agency of targeting students and opposition members with spyware. Vucic rejected the allegations as “suspicions without a single shred of evidence,” noting that the students themselves had admitted they could not prove them.

Vucic also framed the accusations as a political diversion. He said his opponents had no concrete policies to offer, asking whether they could promise to build roads connecting the villages of Rusko Selo, Nakovo and Mokrin. Because they did not know where those places were, he said, they resorted to “big stories” designed to attract the attention of foreign intelligence agencies. He added that “externally funded NGOs” were behind the allegations.

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In this country, I was the one who was under surveillance back when I was an opposition leader, and they continued the practice illegally even after I became president. Did I make a scene over it or go after anyone in the BIA later? Never.

At a news conference on Wednesday, the student movement said more than 10 students and opposition members had been targeted since the beginning of the year. Andrijana, a representative of the SHARE Foundation, said the organization had confirmed that at least 14 people were targeted by advanced spyware in early 2026. The claims and the president’s denial remain sharply opposed.

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What can they offer? Can they come out and say they’ll build the road to Rusko Selo, or the Nakovo-Mokrin road? They don’t even know where those places are.