EU Greens Support Serbian Citizens and Green-Left Front in Their Fight for Democracy

Vula Tsetsi (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Members of the European Green Party, a transnational grouping of Green parties represented in the European Parliament, voiced solidarity with citizens of Serbia and the Green-Left Front, saying they are defending “democracy against an autocratic regime.”

Vula Tsetsi, co-chair of the European Green Party, said on Dec. 6 at the opening of the party’s 40th Congress in Lisbon that European Greens “were standing together with the citizens of Serbia at the protest in Novi Sad, when Vucic directly attacked them and called them ‘Europe’s scum.’”

“We feel proud when autocrats attack us,” Tsetsi said, adding that the defense of democracy is “a shared responsibility across the EU” and that the European Greens will “continue to raise awareness about the situation in Serbia across Europe.”

Biljana Djordjevic, co-chair of the Green-Left Front, spoke at the Congress’s first plenary panel, dedicated to “supporting Green parties on the frontlines of defending democracy,” according to a statement by the Serbian opposition party. “We have shown that there is a brave and defiant Serbia that rejects violence, autocracy and injustice,” she said.

“Mass protests have shown that a captured state can be defended through solidarity, persistence and belief in change. The struggle continues, despite the regime’s repression, and while we have not yet won, we have preserved hope, built strength and shown Europe that there is an alternative in Serbia,” Djordjevic said.