{"id":11353,"date":"2025-07-14T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=11353"},"modified":"2025-07-30T09:59:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T08:59:23","slug":"more-highways-in-serbia-than-in-croatia-and-romania-misquotes-and-president-vucics-false-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/14\/more-highways-in-serbia-than-in-croatia-and-romania-misquotes-and-president-vucics-false-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"More Highways in Serbia than in Croatia and Romania? Misquotes \u2013 and President Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s False Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Original article<\/em><\/a> (in Serbian) was published on 11\/7\/2025; Author: Milica Blagojevi\u0107<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At the opening of a new section of the Milo\u0161 Veliki highway recently, some media outlets reported that, according to President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, Serbia has more highways than Croatia and Romania. While Vu\u010di\u0107 was misquoted in the case of Croatia, he himself made a false claim regarding Romania. The opening ceremony was also marked by his attempt to downplay public concerns about the safety of the section and the tunnel, which appears to have been opened for trial operation despite not being fully completed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new section of Serbia\u2019s Milo\u0161 Veliki highway \u2013 from Pakovra\u0107e to Po\u017eega, 19.5 kilometers long \u2013 was officially opened on Saturday, July 5, by President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, along with Zoran Drobnjak, director of “Putevi Srbije”, Chinese Ambassador Li Ming, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that occasion, the President spoke with journalists, who asked whether Serbia had overtaken Croatia in terms of highway kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He replied, \u201cNot yet,\u201d but added that \u201cwe are very close now, and we will soon catch up and surpass them.\u201d However, some media misquoted this statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media such as Ve\u010dernje novosti<\/em><\/a>, B92<\/em><\/a>, and Euronews<\/em><\/a> reported:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVu\u010di\u0107 stated that Serbia has surpassed Croatia in terms of highways and that we already have significantly more kilometers than Romania in absolute terms, even though it is three times bigger than us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the part about Croatia was misquoted, the statement about Romania was indeed made by the President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must continue working and building, but we already have much more than Romania in absolute numbers, even though Romania is three times bigger than us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this statement is not true according to official data. The projection that Serbia will \u201csoon overtake\u201d Croatia is also optimistic at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who Has How Many Kilometers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to information on the \u201cPutevi Srbije\u201d website<\/a>, Serbia had 995 kilometers of highways as of February 2025. The outlet contacted the company for more up-to-date figures, but they said new data would be available only at the end of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since no other highway section was opened after February 2025 apart from the Pakovra\u0107e\u2013Po\u017eega stretch, 19.5 km should be added to the existing total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By that calculation, Serbia currently has around 1,015 kilometers of highways. Romania, with which the President compared Serbia, actually has more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from Romania\u2019s National Institute of Statistics published<\/a> in April show that by the end of 2024, the country had 1,137 kilometers of highways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Serbia statistically has a larger share of highways relative to its size, Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s statement that we have \u201cmuch more in absolute numbers\u201d is incorrect \u2013 not only does Serbia not have more, it has fewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, his claim that Serbia will \u201csoon catch up and surpass Croatia\u201d is an optimistic assumption, especially considering the current pace of highway construction and the distance yet to be covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to \u201cHrvatske autoceste,\u201d Croatia\u2019s state-owned highway company, the country has a total of 1,355 kilometers of highways. Therefore, Serbia would need to build at least 340 more kilometers to catch up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to data from \u201cPutevi Srbije\u201d and the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Serbia has completed an average of 47 kilometers of highway per year from 2012 to 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this rate, it would take Serbia a little over seven more years to catch up with Croatia \u2013 provided that Croatia does not open any new sections in the meantime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Is There Room for Manipulation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent times, the term \u201cexpressway\u201d has increasingly been used alongside \u201chighway.\u201d President Vu\u010di\u0107 used both terms during Saturday\u2019s ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn these 12 years, we will be able to officially say we have built more roads than in the previous 67 years. Highways and expressways,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are different categories of roads. According to the regulation on road classification<\/a>, expressways are ranked lower than highways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulation classifies so-called expressways as motorways \u2013 for example, the Fru\u0161ka Gora corridor, which is still under construction, or the Po\u017earevac\u2013Golubac road, which is partially completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to \u201cPutevi Srbije\u201d<\/a>, as of February this year there were about 182 kilometers of motorways built, and another 30 kilometers of expressway (Po\u017earevac\u2013Golubac) is expected to open by the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By adding highways and expressways together, Serbia\u2019s total road length could appear greater than Romania\u2019s. However, this involves mixing two different categories of roads \u2013 higher and lower rank. For a proper comparison, Romania\u2019s expressways would also have to be counted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safety Concerns About the New Section<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ceremony was also marked by another statement from the President, who said that the \u201cformer paths and dirt roads full of holes and reverse slopes have become the most modern and safest highways.\u201d That safety, however, is being questioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to an investigation<\/a> by Insajder<\/em> TV and website, construction work on the section has not been completed, which is why engineers have not signed the necessary documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As this media outlet reported, a regulation recently adopted by the Government \u201cenabled the opening of tunnels without completed systems for automatic data monitoring,\u201d and such a system was not completed in one of the tunnels on this stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview<\/a> with Insajder<\/em>, \u201cPutevi Srbije\u201d director Zoran Drobnjak nevertheless guaranteed that the highway is safe, stating that what hasn\u2019t been finished \u201ccan be completed\u201d and that this is why the section was opened for trial use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the situation in the country \u2013 especially after 16 people were killed due to the collapse of another unsafe structure (the train station in Novi Sad) \u2013 President Vu\u010di\u0107 downplayed concerns about the safety of the highway section on the day of the opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked by an Informer<\/em> journalist what he thought about the \u201ccampaign\u201d claiming that the highway is unsafe, Vu\u010di\u0107 replied:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have nothing to say when someone is that miserable and hates their own country that much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He later added:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook, what\u2019s unsafe? They say something might shift by 0.1 millimeter, I don\u2019t know, something\u2026 Please, don\u2019t do this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the official opening, he had a similar reaction<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s useless, there\u2019s always some paper missing because someone didn\u2019t sign something, and now it\u2019s just nonsense and theatrics, I don\u2019t even want to talk about it. The hill is shifting by 0.1 millimeter \u2013 come on, who are you kidding with that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The section of the Milo\u0161 Veliki highway from Preljina to Po\u017eega, which includes the newly opened stretch, is being constructed by the Chinese company China Communications Construction Company (CCCC)<\/strong> \u2013 the same one working on modernizing the Belgrade\u2013Hungarian border railway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Preljina\u2013Po\u017eega section, a loan was taken from the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM)<\/strong> worth $445 million<\/strong>, while the total value of the project is even higher \u2013 over $523 million<\/strong>, according to the loan agreement<\/a> itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated in English using AI tools, then thoughtfully refined by a human editor.<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Serbian) was published on 11\/7\/2025; Author: Milica Blagojevi\u0107 At the opening of a new section of the Milo\u0161 Veliki highway recently, some media outlets reported that, according to President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, Serbia has more highways than Croatia and Romania. While Vu\u010di\u0107 was misquoted in the case of Croatia, he himself made a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[29,28],"class_list":["post-11353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-croatia","tag-serbia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11353"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11413,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11353\/revisions\/11413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}