Out of anger at the Kosovar government, Serbian President Alexander Vucic has announced a boycott of a planned summit between the European Union and the six Western Balkan countries. Vucic announced his decision to skip the meeting in an angry interview with pro-government Serbian broadcaster Pink TV on Thursday.
Vucic was furious that Kosovo’s Prime Minister Alvin Kurti had chosen a moderate Kosovar Serb politician as minister of Kosovar’s ethnic group, rather than someone closely associated with Serbia’s ruling party.
Ministerial posts have traditionally been held by members of the Serbian List (SL) party, which closely coordinates policies with his Vucic government in Belgrade. Instead, Kurti provided information to Nenad Rasic, a member of the moderate Progressive Democratic Party, which is not controlled by the government of Belgrade. In a television interview, Vucic accused Kosovo’s president of being a “terrorist scum” and claimed that the EU would show a “pathetic anti-Serbian stance” at the Balkan summit.
Vucic also claimed that Kurti’s Rasic appointment “indicates a desire to expel the Serbs from Kosovo.” Albanians make up the majority of people living in Kosovo, but the small country in the Balkans has a Serb community, Bosnians, Turks, and Roma. It remains possible that Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnavic will represent Serbia at his EU summit in Tirana.
