FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Having been in power for almost 10 years, President Vucic has shown his admiration for former dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who died before his trial for crimes against humanity and genocide was completed.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, winner of elections marred by irregularities, has refused to support sanctions against Russia and has not given up his ambitions to retake Kosovo, thus risking delaying his country's prospects. for EU integration.
Far from the battlefields in Ukraine, another front of Russia's war is unfolding in the Balkans, where Moscow has sought to exploit nationalist tensions against the aspirations of the region's countries for membership in the European Union. Russia's diplomatic spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, recently compared the protests in Serbia against fraud in the Dec. 17 election to those in Kiev's Maidan Square in 2014 — which paved the way for pro-Western leaders to come to power in Ukraine.
Since the results of the early parliamentary elections were announced, hundreds of demonstrators defied the security forces daily to protest the observed election irregularities. While the official results speak of a victory with 46.72 percent of the votes for the nationalist Progressive Party of the president, Aleksandër Vucic, only 23.58 percent of the votes went to the pro-European coalition "Serbia Against Violence", seven of whose leaders are on hunger strike.
Observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe denounced serious irregularities, including "buying of votes" and "stuffing of ballot boxes". However, the Serbian president insisted that the elections "were the fairest in the recent history of Serbia" as he accused "powerful foreign states" of "destabilizing the country".
This poisonous context reflects Vučić's tension strategy, confirming the growing doubts about Serbia's European orientation. Having been in power for almost 10 years, President Vucic has shown his admiration for former dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who died before his trial for crimes against humanity and genocide was completed.
Vučić did not give up his ambition to regain control over Kosovo, whose independence he never accepted since its declaration in 2008, as can be demonstrated by the repulsed operation of the Serbian commandos, undertaken in September.
Most recently, the president of a country that is a candidate for EU membership (from which he has received funding), Vucic has refused to join European sanctions against Russia and has stopped implementing reforms demanded by the bloc.
Europeans earlier believed that Serbia's trade relations with the EU, as well as the country's economic development, would ultimately triumph over Vucic's nationalist rhetoric. They now have every reason to watch his double play carefully. France, in particular, is very connected to the ambition to anchor the Balkans and thus also Serbia in the bloc. This dilemma is nothing but direct, because the more remote Serbia's entry into the EU seems to be, the more Russia and China will take advantage of this situation to advance their interests.
However, the example set by Viktor Orbán's Hungary, which has aimed to act as Russia's Trojan Horse inside the EU, should prompt member states to demand full and irreversible compliance with the rule of law, for them prevent Belgrade from repeating the same tactic one day. Europeans know from their own history that the dangers of a crisis in the Balkans can have devastating consequences far beyond the region itself. Against the backdrop of worsening tensions from Russia's aggression in Ukraine, they must be vigilant in the face of the Serbian president's excesses. /Taken from "Lemonde", adapted from "Pamphlet"
Lini një Përgjigje