In the Plenary Hall of the City of Smederevo, Mayor Jasmina Vojinović, her Deputy, Vladimir Nešić, and the Member of the City Council responsible for social protection, Nemanja Ivošević, together with the State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Dejan Antić, today presented 32 veterans’ cards to fellow citizens who had recently obtained that right.
“With great respect, we highlight the heroism of our fellow citizens who in the 1990s showed their readiness to defend our state and our people when times were hardest. All of us, as a society and as a local community, owe them a great deal, and that is why we must also strive to improve their status in the future,” said the Mayor of Smederevo, Jasmina Vojinović, announcing that the presentation of veterans’ cards is only the first step in this direction.
The Law on the Rights of Veterans was adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in 2020 on the initiative of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, with the aim of ensuring that all veterans, disabled war veterans and families of fallen veterans can exercise the rights to which they are entitled.
In addition to veterans’ cards, which entitle them to certain discounts with socially responsible companies that have concluded agreements with the competent ministry, veterans are also entitled to recuperation at spa resorts and to some of the benefits that local governments will offer them in future, it was said at the presentation of the cards.
The State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Dejan Antić, recalled the glorious history of Serbian warriors from the Smederevo area, who have always shown their heroism, from the First and Second Serbian Uprisings, through the Serbian-Turkish wars and the First and Second World Wars, to the wars of the 1990s.
“You have shown that you are worthy of your ancestors and worthy of their glory, because in the recent past you fought for the freedom and territorial integrity of Serbia, for our people in the western Serbian lands and on the holy land of Kosovo and Metohija,” Antić stressed, calling on all veterans who have not yet applied for a veteran’s card to do so as soon as possible, because in the coming period the State of Serbia will award veterans not only cards but also the highest honours: an order and a veteran’s commemorative medal.
Veterans who were unable to collect their cards today can do so in the coming days in office no. 65 of the City Administration in Smederevo.
