Opposition Party: Serbia's Admission into EU and Survival of Progressive Party Regime Mutually Exclusive Processes

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/PREDSEDNISTVO REPUBLIKE SRBIJE/Dimitrije Goll)

The Serbian Center party said on June 4 that a report on Serbia adopted by the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), confirms that Serbia's European path is stagnating under the rule of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his "mafia-partisan apparatus."

In a statement the party said that Serbia's institutions have been captured and turned into "one man's [personal] service," that crime and politics are intertwined, the independent media exposed to pressure, while the regime's media outlets are being used to crack down on dissenters.

The party said that it is hypocritical to speak of European integrations, when, it claimed, basic freedoms are being choked and corruption is spreading. "With Vucic there is no EU for Serbia. He is not a factor of stability, but a generator of crises who uses European integration as a screen for his survival and the unhindered enrichment of persons close to the Serbian Progressive Party," the party said.

The party added that Serbia's admission into the EU and the survival of the incumbent Serbian Progressive Party regime "are mutually exclusive processes" and that Serbia will become a member of the EU after rule of law and accountability for the plunder of the state are established.