Jeremic for EURACTIV: Serbian Democracy under Attack by Vucic

Vuk Jeremic (Beta/Milos Miskov)

People’s Party leader Vuk Jeremic said on Feb. 27 that democracy in Serbia is under attack by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic whose “regime is actively wrecking the basic tenets of democracy.”

In an article written for Brussels’ Euractiv, and which the portal published as a response to Vucic’ “Democracy in Serbia under Attack,” Jeremic called the Serbian president democracy’s assailant and not its defender.

“Under enormous pressure from the EU, late last year Vučić initiated a sham ‘dialogue’ designed solely to deflect their growing criticisms regarding electoral conditions in Serbia. In his opinion piece, Vučić preposterously claims that he does not wish to influence the forthcoming report on this issue, chaired by one of his most servile lackeys, Serbia’s interior minister Nebojsa Stefanović,” wrote Jeremic.

Jeremic added that Vucic has no intention of reducing the media control; to the contrary, he is strengthening his status as a “media overlord.”

Jeremic, who formerly served as Serbian minister of foreign affairs and president of the U.N. General Assembly, claims that Vucic cannot and will not bring Serbia closer to Europe, which is a fact known to every diplomat posted in Belgrade.

“The bottom line is that the united front held by Serbia’s mainstream democratic opposition to boycott Vučić’s sham election at all levels is the only honorable and practical course of action,” concluded Jeremic.