Opposition Official: In Serbia Middle Class Equates Patriotism with Primitivism

Boris Tadic (BETAPHOTO/Milan Obradovic)

Social Democratic Party president and a former Serbian president Boris Tadic said on June 20 that Serbia was one of the rare countries in the world in which the middle class equated patriotism with primitivism and in which there was a huge lack of understanding of the significance of the question of Kosovo.

In an interview with the NIN weekly, he stressed that Kosovo, but other pieces of territory as well, physically and identity-wise, made Serbia what it was.

“When I say that the question of Kosovo determines Serbia’s fate, that means that without a doubt the fate of every country is determined by whether it forsakes a piece of its territory and its legitimate national interests, because this affects every form of stability of a country. That determines the question of peace or war in the future, the country’s economic future, the state of the collective consciousness and overall stability of a country,” Tadic stressed.

He also said that it was much harder today to protect the interest of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija than before 2012. “My policy is that what was not lost in war is not lost in peace and we were very good at leading this policy while not threatening Serbia’s European future and we achieved historical successes on the road to European integration,” Tadic said.