Tensions are rising between Belgrade and the EU. On Friday 5 September, new demonstrations took place in the Serbian capital, which has been gripped by a wave of protests since the collapse of Novi Sad station last November (see EUROPE 13703/19).
Accused of pursuing a violent policy of repression, the Serbian president caused a stir during his speech on Friday evening when he declared that the demonstrators “had been helped by European Green Party scum, the worst European scum who came to Novi Sad this evening to support this violence” and that they would be prosecuted in accordance with Serbian law.
A delegation of MEPs from the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, including Vula Tsetsi (Greek), co-chair of the European Green Party, and Rasmus Nordqvist, Danish MEP and member of the European Green Party Committee, visited the site at the weekend to meet the Serbian Green Party and show solidarity with demonstrators (see EUROPE 13652/25).
“A president who once labelled peaceful protesters as ‘terrorists’ and now calls a member of the European Parliament and a European political party delegation ‘scum’ has crossed every line of democratic discourse”, Vula Tsetsi protested the day after Aleksandar Vučić’s statement.
Parliament’s Greens/EFA group has sent a letter to President of the European Council António Costa, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, asking them to “publicly condemn” the Serbian leader’s remarks.
“Such personal insults, threats of prosecution, intimidation, and disinformation from the head of State of an EU candidate country go far beyond political disagreement. They are an attack on European democracy itself, on civil freedoms in Serbia and on the European political family“, the letter states.
Co-chair of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, Bas Eickhout (Dutch), spoke out against these actions at a press conference, calling for some of the EU funds allocated to Belgrade to be suspended: “We cannot talk about democracy and the Rule of law within the European Union and, when we talk to Aleksandar Vučić, close our eyes and carry on as if nothing had happened. This is unacceptable, we must act now. We cannot continue to finance a country that is moving more and more towards Putin-style autocracy”, he insisted (see EUROPE 13639/28).
On Sunday 7 September, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos stated that the Serbian president’s statements “will not improve Serbia’s reputation in Europe”. Calling MEPs ‘scum’ “reveals a dubious understanding of democracy”, she quipped.
Aleksandar Vučić continues to assert that European Union membership remains Serbia’s strategic priority (see EUROPE 13646/25) and that these demonstrations are having a “detrimental” effect on the country’s image and economic attractiveness.
At this stage, the Commission is refusing to comment on the possible impact of these remarks on Belgrade’s EU accession process.
See the Greens/EFA letter: https://aeur.eu/f/ic8 (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)