10 minutes agoEP rapporteur for Serbia blames Vuciqi for not realising meetings
Periskopi(a year ago)
(a year ago)The European Parliament's permanent rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, following his visit to Belgrade, during which he did not meet with top state officials, said Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, had planned such a thing. The decision to have direct contacts with me, in the name of power, be exclusively reduced [...]
The decision for direct contacts with me, on behalf of power, to be exclusively reduced to talks in the People's Assembly and the Ministry of European Integration took, of course, President Vucic, after only he decides for such moves,” confirmed Picula for Radio Free Europe.
Picaula went to Belgrade after the draft report, which faced criticism from Serbian authorities, was released on February 20th.
The meeting with the rapporteur for Serbia rejected Vuciqi, who called Piçula “adversar”. In addition to Vuciki, the meeting was also rejected by the head of the parliamentary group “, Aleksandar Vuciq Serbia should not stop” in Serbia's Assembly, Milenko Jovanov.
Picaula claims the government's negative attitude towards the draft report on the situation in the country was promoted prior to its arrival.
“On the other hand, it would not be fair to reduce the meaning and results of my stay in Serbia only at meetings I did not have with the president of the state, the incumbent prime minister and Foreign Affairs Minister”, Tonino Picula said.
During his stay in Serbia, a police action also took place in the environments of several nongovernmental organisations in Belgrade.
Picula confirms that even this element, along with all impressions from the visit, will be included in the ongoing work report on the situation in Serbia.
He estimated that the four-day mission in the capacity of the European Parliament's permanent rapporteur for Serbia has shown that it will not be possible to easily bridge differences in the country's assessments of the situation between it and government representatives with whom there was no opportunity to negotiate.
The most important developments in Serbia for months are mass protests led by students who are blocking educational institutions. Protests have spread throughout the country. In my opinion, there is general social pressure on politics, with the aim of releasing state institutions from everything that has been blocking for years”, Picula points out.
According to him, future developments will depend on relations among the four factors he considers most influential: power, which is failing to distribute protests; institutional opposition, which does not direct developments; the international community, which is largely keeping distance; and students who have a broad basis of legitimacy, but have not yet expanded the list of demands beyond the initial ones.
Students, who by the end of November have blocked more than 60 faculties across the country, seek criminal and political responsibility for the tragedy in Novi Sad, where the roof of the Hekurudhor station collapsed on November 1st, causing the death of 15 people.
Students also seek prosecution of the responsible for the attacks on them and other citizens during the protests.
The power, led by President Vuciq, claims that a <x0-95-color revolution is under way in Serbia and insists students' demands have been met. Students and academic opinion reject these claims.
