Turković: Traveler, if you’re passing through Kragujevac, tell them that 140 pharmacists have fallen here — not in battle, but due to neglect and betrayal

We share the full statement from Obrad Turković, Vice President of the City Board of the Freedom and Justice Party in Kragujevac:

Pharmacies of Kragujevac are not just ordinary pharmacies. They were a pillar of public health, a lifeline for the most vulnerable, and a beacon of lawful operation in a sea of commercial chaos. They had branches even in rural areas — places where private owners would never go, because profit is not enough of a motive when humanity is absent.

Today, as not a single offer has been made for their takeover, it is clear: the city has failed the test of responsibility.

A pharmacy that respected the law, that did not cheat the state, that employed pharmacists and served the people, is now vanishing — suffocated in silence.

For months, the Freedom and Justice Party in Kragujevac warned of this looming tragedy. We said 140 employees would be left without bread. We said people would be left without medicine. We offered solutions. We pleaded for understanding. But no one listened.

And now it is too late.

Those who governed the city, through their inaction and misplaced priorities, allowed one of the rare examples of a just and public healthcare system to collapse.

This is a battle for the soul of the city. The foundations of the modern Serbian state, laid in Kragujevac in the early 19th century, also carry within them the legacy of the first state-run pharmacy.

For us, this fight is not over. The only justice for all citizens of Kragujevac is the survival of Pharmacies Kragujevac — and such justice will prevail.

Obrad Turković,

Vice President of the City Board of the Freedom and Justice Party, Kragujevac