German FR: Brussels Slowly Losing Patience with Authoritarian President Vučić
After vicious insults directed at Members of the European Parliament from the European Green Party, Brussels is losing patience with Serbia’s authoritarian president Aleksandar Vučić, and European Commissioner Marta Kos found clear words to respond to him, writes the daily Frankfurter Rundschau (FR).
“With some delay, the European Commission has also noticed the growing degradation of normal standards of behavior in the largest EU candidate country in the Western Balkans,” reports Nova.rs.
The German daily recalls that Vučić furiously called the Green MEPs who were visiting Serbia “the worst European scum” and threatened the guests from the European Parliament with criminal prosecution.
With the assessment that attacking European deputies testifies to a “very questionable understanding of democracy,” European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos “lectured the strongmen in Belgrade via Twitter.”
“Build an independent judiciary that will fight corruption more effectively. Free the media and ensure they can report freely. And finally carry out electoral reform that will guarantee that only the will of the citizens decides on the majority in parliament,” wrote Kos, FR recalls.
“Such clear words regarding authoritarian tendencies in Belgrade have rarely been heard from the European Commission until now. But it seems that Brussels’ patience with the problematic candidate, who is balancing between West and East after Serbia’s rulers drew closer to China and Russia at the military parade in Beijing, is increasingly running out,” writes FR.
And the calls for sanctions against the Belgrade leadership are becoming louder, not only in the European Parliament and the Serbian opposition.
“Even within the European People’s Party (EPP), the alliance of European Christian Democratic parties, voices are multiplying that ties of associated membership with Vučić and his Russophile Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) should be cut,” writes FR.
The paper writes that, faced with threatening consequences, Vučić admitted that it was probably a mistake to call EU politicians scum.
“A head of state should not publicly use such words,” said Vučić, “who otherwise is not averse to crudely insulting political opponents,” the daily writes, adding that Vučić’s self-criticism referred “only to style,” since he immediately added that he “personally has a far worse opinion” of the MEPs he insulted.
