Drug Claim Sparks Outrage in Serbia Poll Campaign

Presidential candidate's wife Natasa Jeremic told a press conference on Tuesday that she was appalled and scared after the ruling Progressive Party's vice-president Milenko Jovanov accused her the previous day of being the "chief of the Serbian drug market".

"Last night's press release showed they [the Progressives] are ready to do anything," said Jeremic, who until recently worked as a journalist for Serbian public broadcaster RTS, looking visibly shaken.

"I do not think this will stop here, I am afraid that someone will plant drugs on me. I do not know what is [coming] next, I am honestly scared," she added.

Fellow journalists came out in support of Jeremic on social media on Monday evening, while the Serbian Journalists' Association, UNS, called on Progressives to apologise to her and the public over the allegation.

Jovanov and the Progressives issued a press release on Monday claiming that Vuk Jeremic, a former Serbian foreign minister and former president of the UN General Assembly who is running for the country's presidency in the April 2 elections, is surrounded by "the biggest criminal gang in Serbia"

"The entire drug market in Serbia is managed by his wife, Natasa Jeremic," it alleged.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, the leader of the Progressives and the party's candidate for the presidency, apologised on Tuesday for Jovanov's statement.

"I ask all citizens of Serbia to accept my apology for the incorrect statement, which was not mine," Vucic said in a statement.

Natasa Jeremic however rebuffed the apology, insisting that Vucic controls every word that comes out of his party.

"Vucic apologised to the citizens of Serbia this morning. I, as a citizen of Serbia, do not accept his apology, and he...