Opposition Leader: 30 Days After Belgrade Meeting Von der Leyen Has Not Done an Evaluation of Vucic's Promises 

Dragan Djilas (BETAPHOTO/DRAGAN GOJIC)

Freedom and Justice Party president Dragan Djilas said on Nov. 20 that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen  had not performed an evaluation of  Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's promises despite saying that she would after visiting Belgrade on Oct. 15 this year, even though 30 days have passed since her visit.

In an open letter to Von der Leyen, Djilas said that he wanted to make "the job of evaluating" the visit easier for her, saying that in the 30 days that had passed since then Vucic "and his associates who are members of an organized crime group" had "undermined" the process of electing the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) "and appointed persons accused of beating demonstators and making threats of rape to the most important positions."

"The have launched a process of divesting the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime of its authority, adopting a lex specialis that broke the law and legalized corruption, continued an anti-European campaign in the media, continued harassing and abusing the students of certain Belgrade and Novi Sad high schools and continued abusing the media," Djilas said in the letter.

He also accused Von der Leyen of "lying" to Serbia's citizens when she said over a year ago that Serbia was the leading state in European integration among candidates for EU membership as opposed to the European Commission saying that "Serbia is at the rear of accession to the EU." "For this to change the government in Serbia needs to be changed. This process has begun and nothing can stop it anymore," Djilas added.