Serbia: Mass protests are destabilising President Aleksandar Vucic’s “à la carte” foreign policy. The EU should seize the moment to support democratic change and regional stability.

ecfr.eu A double bind: How unrest and geopolitics could end Serbia’s government

Mass protests are destabilising Aleksandar Vucic’s rule and his “à la carte” foreign policy positioning. As Serbia’s president faces his toughest challenge yet, the EU should seize the moment to support democratic change and regional stability

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This is an opinionated article by Engjellushe Morina, Senior Policy Fellow, and Angelica Vascotto, pan-European Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

This winter has seen Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic skating on dangerously thin ice. Mass student-led anticorruption protests have led to the resignation of the prime minister, Milos Vucevic, as well as several other members of his government. Last week, the president hinted that the turmoil could lead to a snap parliamentary election come spring.

But public anger and Vucic’s collapsing government are far from his only problems. Even before the protests, the president’s longstanding “à la carte” approach to foreign policy of hedging Serbia between the West and Russia (with a side order of China) seemed to be in trouble. Both the European Union and Russia have been pressing Belgrade to choose a side. Now, Vucic has found himself with very little international sympathy for his domestic woes—and very little room for manoeuvre.

This gives Europeans a key opportunity to help steer events towards stability and democratic progress while minimising the risk of regional spillover. To prevent prolonged instability and bring Serbia back on track, the EU should support civil society, address regional tensions, and reinforce Serbia’s European trajectory.

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37 comments

As someone already asked, why are comments like those by @bungalowtill not deleted? This is from RT or something.
- It is certainly an opinion I don't share, but it isn't outright missinformation. I think we can survive some different opinions in the comment section if there is no brigarding or outright lies.
  
  @poVoq
  I would not only delete @bungalowtill's comments but ban the user entirely from the community. They literally wrote:
  Another Ukraine project? Sounds like a fabulous idea. Especially for Serbians.
  How else can you understand that if not as a call for violence? Such a comment is completely insane.
  
  It is up to you, I'm not a moderator. Others in this thread appear to share my view that the said comments are highly biased, and they perfectly fit into a propaganda pattern. @bungalowtill's comment ("another Ukraine project?") can only be understood as a direct threat to the Serbian people demanding democracy. For example, Georgia's Russia-linked party 'Georgian Dream' applied such a rhetoric in last year's Georgian election, spreading fears among the population that Russia will attack the country if it opens to the EU and Western democracies.
  But as I said, I'm not a mod. I stand by my initial remark to remove such comments, though.
- You really don’t care much for the European values you seemingly promote. Please explain why my comment should be removed.

Or how about we stop with the "nation-building" and let other countries decide their own fate? I can't think of many examples where this sort of outside influence had the intended effect long term.
- @superkret
  It is China and Russia that are trying to undermine democracies in Serbia, in Europe and elsewhere. @bungalowtill & others are echoing narratives out of Moscow's and Beijing's playbook. We have been observing this in Ukraine before the invasion, and we see this today also in Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and many other former Soviet states.
  This is why I agree also with what is said that bungallowtill's comment is not 'only' derailed but also an offence to the Serbian civil society. The EU must support them, not sit and wait.
  @poVoq
  Edit: You may watch this video (2 min) to see what it means when the EU let other nations 'decide their fate'. This comment is rubbish in this context here.

Another Ukraine project? Sounds like a fabulous idea. Especially for Serbians.
- Care to expand? (As in, who do you see as the aggressor here/there?; would you say the outcome of this is predetermined?)
  
  No, I don’t think this is predetermined.
  The article describes the situation very well. Serbia is a country trapped between the contemporary rivalling power blocks that want it to make up its mind once and for all and choose one of them (not sure if that applies to China, too). Vucic thought he could avoid joining a bloc and do politics “a la carte”. Which I’d say is a derogatory term, 3rd world countries from the 20th century would agree.
  I think the situation is very, very similar to the situation in Ukraine in 2013 as well as the situation in Georgia. Unfortunately here nobody sees the EU as a power competent enough to act according to its interests, but hey, I disagree. And I think it has very strong interests to incorporate Serbia. The think tank that is the European Council on Foreign Affairs, obviously agrees.
  Because of its projected values (of which European citizens feel less every day) the EU has a pretty good standing among young people, students, urban people. These are the people on the streets. As they were in Ukraine, as they are in Georgia. In 2013 they almost brought down the government in Ukraine, which really was elected before, but didn’t want to sign the accession treaty to the EU for what I think were pretty good reasons. But the students didn’t bring down the government alone. Whatever happened at the Maidan, in the end Russia and the EU lost the power struggle there, the US set the stage. The country was fortified against any Russian attempts, well, we know it wasn’t enough.
  This think tank now suggests similar methods: Encourage the demonstrators (and let’s not forget: threaten their lives by doing so), deploy more NATO in the neighbouring countries, enable a smooth transition. Whatever that means. (USAID btw knows exactly was this means and has its own Office of Transition Initiatives)
  These are very dangerous times for the people of said states. I hope they don’t get crushed by the escalating conflicts between the power blocs as the people in Ukraine are.
- Yes
- Another Ukraine project? Sounds like a fabulous idea. Especially for Serbians.
  Why doesn't this get deleted?
  
  Excuse me? Because I have a different opinion to yours? Get lost.

37 comments