European Green Party: Not Intimidated by Vucic’s Threats

European Green Party (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

The European Green Party’s co-chair Vula Tsetsi said on Sept. 6 that they were not intimidated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s threats, but they he had crossed the line of democratic discourse.

“President (Vucic), who called peaceful protesters ‘terrorists,’ and a Member of the European Parliament and a delegation of a European political party ‘scum,’ has crossed every boundary of democratic discourse,” Tsetsi was quoted as saying by her party.

The European party official warned that the freedom of speech could not be assailed, nor could hate speech by a head of state be tolerated. “Vucic’s threats of criminal prosecution are even more alarming, because they undermine the rule of law,” she said, adding that by portraying European visitors as threats to Serbia’s stability, Vucic was attacking all democrats.

“What we have witnessed is the authoritarianism that the citizens of Serbia face every day. They can count on our solidarity - their courage in the defense of democracy deserves support, not hostility. The European Union cannot keep silent,” Tsetsi said, who visited Serbia on Sept. 5, together with member of the European Green Party Executive Board MEP Rasmus Nordqvist.