Student and civil protests in Serbia lasted for nine months without attracting particular attention in the institutions of the European Union. And then Aleksandar Vučić ordered the police to brutally break up the demonstrations in Novi Sad on September 5, and everything changed: Serbia suddenly found itself in the spotlight of both the European Parliament and the European Commission. "We have a problem in Belgrade," said Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos.
But not so much because of the application of brutal police force against peaceful demonstrators and the use of banned tear gas, but because of the rudeness of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, in dealing with the MEPs who happened to be there.
The leader of the progressive fans called them "European scum", probably thinking that he can do that because they are some politicians of what he considers to be minor green parties, that he can insult them as he does to everyone he doesn't like on the domestic political scene.
Sobering in Brussels and Strasbourg
That "European scum" of his, however, splashed like a bucket of ice water between Strasbourg and Brussels. As well as those nebulas that they came to Novi Sad to oust him from power and that Western democracies are behind the "colored revolution" in Serbia.
Is that how a man who we have been supporting for 15 years, who is so much money and know-how received only from the German Christian Democratic Foundation "Konrad Adenauer" in order to enable him to behave decently on the European diplomatic floor, representatives of conservative parties were heard speaking in the rooms of the European Parliament.
And in just an hour, in a month and a half, the green-left minority, which for many years vigorously criticized the trampling of democracy in Serbia, turned into a convincing majority in the EP - 457 deputies voted for the harshest ever Resolution on Serbia, 103 were against it, and 72 of them abstained.
The one who blurted out "European scum" has been exposed as a hopeless case who needs to be slowly let down the drain.
Back to radical tuning
Lulled by the praises of the poltroons who surround him, Aleksandar Vučić still did not understand what actually happened - that he went from being a bully of Angela Merkel in the eyes of his former allies from the European People's Party to his radical settings.
So, fed up with the fact that in Serbia, just about every nasty thing he utters goes without consequence, he was dissatisfied with the content of the Resolution, and called 457 European deputies "pathological liars". Because how dare they vote for a document in which, in addition to police brutality and hundreds of anti-democratic inactions, Čatsiland and the sound cannon are also mentioned.
It's not a resolution, it's a pamphlet.
The Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dačić spoke on the same wavelength. He called the latest Resolution of the European Parliament on Serbia a "political pamphlet".
"Messages from the European Parliament are not messages. It is a notice board on which anyone could write what they wanted, bearing in mind the non-binding nature of the decisions made by the European Parliament. When you have such ordinary lies in what the European Parliament writes, then you are obviously dealing with a political pamphlet, and not a serious political document," Dacic said in the Morning Diary of the Radio-television of Serbia.
So he said that it is not an EP report, but a report that was made in Serbia based on misinformation, so that 457 European deputies are so naive that they fall for the lies of the blockaders-terrorists.
Dacic is right that EP resolutions are not binding. But the deputies of the European People's Party, whose member is also the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, also voted for this regarding Serbia. It seems that they didn't listen carefully to her either when she was in Belgrade.
Be that as it may, the former minister of information under Slobodan Milošević and the spokesman of the Socialist Party of Serbia sent his diplomatic message to Brussels and Strasbourg.
The answer was not long in coming.
The path of aggression and conspiracy
The General Secretary of the European Democratic Party (EDP), Sandro Goci, assessed that President Aleksandar Vučić's statements about the European Parliament are not an insult only to the EP, but an insult to reason, to democracy and to the citizens of Serbia themselves.
Gozzi emphasized that he will send an official letter to EP President Roberta Mezzola, calling on her to defend the dignity, integrity and honor of the European Parliament and all its members with the full authority of her position, the EDP announced.
Once again, President Vučić chose "the path of aggression and conspiracy instead of dialogue and responsibility." Referring to the resolution of the European Parliament, he described the members of the European Parliament as "pathological liars" and "seriously ill", Gozzi said.
He assessed that these are not the words of a democratic leader - they are the words of a man who believes that shouting louder can replace facts and that a personal insult can erase responsibility.
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