Presidential Candidate: “The Serb World” Motto Is Harmful to Serbs in the Region

Zdravko Ponos(BETAPHOTO/SASA DJORDJEVIC/EV)

Zdravko Ponos, a presidential candidate of the ticket titled United for the Victory of Serbia, has expressed his full opposition to the idea of “the Serb world,” which has been over the past year promoted by Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin.

“I think that this motto is rather risky and harmful to the interests of our people in the region. If someone has imagined that the Serbs regardless of their place of residence, should have a single leader who is in Belgrade, it is neither healthy nor good,” Ponos told state public broadcaster RTS in the evening on March 28.

Ponos also said that the Serbs living outside of Serbia had been realizing a large portion of their interests in the countries where they lived and that Serbia should help them in other ways. “Of course, Serbia should be helping them, should protect them through education systems and certain investments and by taking care of the cultural heritage, but they have been achieving a large portion of their interests in the countries where they live and they should not be instigated,” Ponos said.

Ponos noted that other countries in the region should act in the same way. “Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H) is a complex creation. It is, so to say, an incomplete state. It is very important that Serbia position itself in a way that will support the entities, peoples and citizens in B-H in finding a mechanism to build up their state” adding that they did not need “Belgrade or Zagreb to coach them.”

Ponos went on to say that the Dayton Peace Agreement was the basis for the functioning of B-H and that the regime had to be controlled by representatives of the peoples living in that territory. Ponose noted that B-H “will not be functioning” as long as someone from the outside was interfering.