Recent anti-EU statements by several Serbian ministers risk turning the general public in the divided country against EU membership, experts fear.
Recently amplified anti-EU rhetoric by a number of Serbian government ministers could potentially affect public opinion about the EU, amid a deep division over Serbia’s potential EU membership, experts say.
Bojan Klacar, from the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, CeSid, told BIRN that “the anti-EU narrative is still not part of the ruling mainstream … but is coming from the smaller players”.
If President Aleksandar Vucic also turned against the EU, it could result in a serious fall in support for EU membership, he added, “but Vucic will not take this type of risk in the short term”.
However, President Vucic on September 21 accused the EU of not being clear about what it wanted, in forcing him to attend meetings in Brussels with Kosovo leaders.
The EU “has to tell me what it wants. If it wants for Serbia to be humiliated, it will not see that and I will not agree to that.
“I am always for dialogue – but I will not go if they tell me that I have to recognize Kosovo to be a great and respected world leader,” Vucic said after visiting the Children’s Hospital in Belgrade.
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