Brnabic: I understand why Vucic is in two minds regarding going to Tirana

The Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, said that she spoke with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and that he was still thinking about whether to go to the summit in Tirana, and that she understood him because of all the pressures exerted upon him.

"I often wondered how a man has such nerve, the tolerance to fight for Serbia and the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija in that way. If you look at 2008 and 2010, we did not have anything then. Vucic somehow put that issue back on the table, as well as the dialogue in which it is said that it has not been finished and that Belgrade and Pristina will discuss it. When they criticized that Vucic was backed into a corner, I said that we didn't even have that corner. For example, Vucic is still fighting for license plates and some mutually acceptable compromise, but after everything he has endured together with the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija in recent years, his statement the other day was the mildest human reaction. He said the very next day that if he managed to be heard, he did well", Brnabic said as a guest on Pink TV.

She said that this year alone, she recorded at least six things that were done contrary to the Brussels Agreement and international principles, which the EU remained almost silent on - the ban on voting twice, for which they got only condemnation. Then we had the license plates problem which was artificially created by Kurti. That problem does not exist as the text from 2011 states that it will be like this until they come to an agreement. Then he started to terrorize Serbs in Kosovo, with the intention of expelling them. Then there was the problem of identity cards, then in the middle of Berlin he said that there is no Brussels Agreement in Pristina and that he does not accept it and that the CSM is out of the question. And again, no one spoke up," she said.

She reminded that on the same day he replaced Nenad Djuric, which he had no right to do, and thus unilaterally violated all agreements and norms.

"And there he again generated a huge crisis, because of which the Serbs left the institutions. The cherry on top of the cake is the appointment of Nenad Rasic as the representative of the Serbs, a man who won 0.173 percent of the vote. The Serb List received almost 30 times more than him and Rada Trajkovic, who think that is morally right and democratically right to represent the Serbs. So who are the Serbs you represent when Trajkovic lives in Belgrade," Brnabic said.

When asked whether it is necessary for the EU to emphasize what is happening on the ground, Brnabic reminded that in 2021 there were 128 ethnically motivated attacks on Serbs in Kosovo, and by December 2, 2022, 126, for which no one was held accountable.

"In Kosovo, under Kurti, the hunt for Serbs has been opened. When you look at all their reports on the rule of law, they say that 'everything is falling apart'. If Kurti was the head of the local community, you could not hope for a road, a hospital, a school, but that he would start a war. Neither the Serbs, I'm sure, nor the Albanians want that. If there is visa liberalization for Kosovo, there will be an exodus," Brnabic said.

She added that it was incredibly hypocritical and that every meeting with Kurti "makes you feel like a fool", especially when you listened to him say that they were world champions in the rule of law in the year when he banned Serbs from voting, and when he arrested a young man in Gracanica to try him in Pristina and sentence him to eight months without any evidence. It's really painful to be at those meetings and I can't explain how much Vucic is fighting for the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, but also for peace in the Balkans," Brnabic said.

She also said that Vucic should go to Tirana and present all this information.

"It is easy to say that he should go. He will endure pressure on our behalf and go through all the pressure and lies to ultimately protect the interests of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. It is an impossible task, it is a difficult situation," she said. She added that the Serbs south of the Ibar River were ready to leave the institutions.

"Why not, it's boiling over there, the hunt for Serbs is open," she said.

She added that no one told the truth better than Vucic and that he managed to make the Kosovo issue not a finished one.

"He is responsible for the recognition campaign. He came up with it, planned it strategically. That's why it's important that he be there. No one has such credibility as him," Brnabic said, adding that many foreign officials think he is one of the most influential European leaders. 

She also said that it was incredible that former Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vesna Pusic showed democratic potential by supporting someone who won less than one percent of the vote, alluding to Pusic's support for Rada Trajkovic.

"How did Kurti find Rasic and Trajkovic exactly? When you take into account what Trajkovic says about the Serbs, even Kurti doesn't use such a vocabulary for the Serbs either. She is able to say all kinds of nonsense about President Vucic. They have the nerve to represent Serbs with 1,500 votes, that's terrible thing. Kurti found serious collaborators in accordance with his principles and norms," Brnabic said.