Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Mladjan Dinkic denied Wednesday that he had helped Boris Tadic win the presidential election by falsely promising the people EUR 1,000 each from free shares of government companies, which was published December 27 by the Danas daily.

According to Dinkic, the title of the interview given for Danas, which was "I promised EUR 1,000 for Tadic's sake," was unprofessional and malicious, since he never said those words. He states that his political opponents have used the title attack him, because they fear the rising popularity of his new party, the United Regions of Serbia.

Dinkic told TV B92 that he had deeply believed the people could get EUR 1,000 from the shares and that the shares would indeed be worth that much now if there had been no global economic crisis. There was no way to predict the crisis, and on top of that, the largest petroleum company in the country, Naftna Industrija Srbije, whose shares were supposed to be part of the package, was sold to the Russians for a pittance.

He still thinks the people will get more than some analysts have predicted, adding that the privatization of the Telekom telecommunications company will prove that, but it still will not be EUR 1,000.

According to Dinkic, he did not lie, he simply gave a wrong estimate, but he could not influence the results.