Serbia’s Minister for Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Snežana Paunović, has denied opposition allegations that the Peja Pharmacy Institution was dissolved in 2021, insisting that neither the Serbian government nor any official decision abolished the institution.
Speaking during the Serbian parliament’s debate on a no-confidence motion against the government, Paunović responded to accusations from opposition lawmakers that she had continued receiving a salary as director of an institution that no longer exists.
“There is no government decision abolishing the Peja Pharmacy Institution,” Paunović said. “The government adopted a decision in 2021 to establish the Kosovska Mitrovica Pharmacy Institution, along with a proposal to integrate five pharmacy institutions into the newly formed entity.”
She argued that the institution remains legally active.
“The pharmacy institution has not been abolished, the government has never adopted such a decision, and contrary to what some MPs claimed, I became director in March 2014, not April. If they had actually read the official documents, they would know that the bank account is active, the tax identification number still exists, and these attempts to criminalize me are politically motivated,” she said.
Paunović also defended controversial remarks she previously made about Kosovo Albanians, saying critics had taken only seven seconds from a much longer television interview out of context.
“The issues I spoke about concerned the direct victims of terrorist attacks in Kosovo and Metohija,” she said, also referring to the anniversary of the 1944 massacre in the village of Velika, near Plav, in present-day Montenegro.
During the debate, opposition Green-Left Front (ZLF) lawmaker Radomir Lazović reiterated allegations that Paunović had received a salary from a non-existent institution and falsely claimed travel expenses by stating she resided in Kosovo. He also contrasted her alleged salary with the delayed wages of employees at Apoteke Beograd.
The exchange prompted repeated interruptions from opposition MPs, leading National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabić to issue formal warnings to several lawmakers.
Meanwhile, Milenko Jovanov, head of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) parliamentary group, rejected Lazović’s criticism, noting that Apoteke Beograd had reached an agreement with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić earlier that day to address the wage dispute.
