Despite the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) having signed a Cooperation Agreement with Putin’s United Russia, and despite SNS President and Serbian PM Miloš Vučević having stated that the party shares common core values with the Communist Party of China, we shouldn’t forget that SNS became an associate member of the European People’s Party (EPP) in 2016
Aleksandar Vulin, as the ideologue of the “Serbian world”, dubs Vučić “the president of all Serbs”. Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik formally bows to the Serbian President, though it feels like Dodik wants to give the impression that he and Vučić are “co-presidents of the Serbian world”. Dodik has no qualms about seeing Vladimir Putin, unlike Vučić, for whom that would prove politically complex today.
More than a decade on, we can only guess as to whether Vučić, in his liberal – “Protestant” phase, when he often cited Max Weber, envisaged his government and its manifestations exactly in this way, at the “All-Serb Assembly”. Admittedly, the EU future of Serbia and Republika Srpska was mentioned as a commitment in the Assembly’s Declaration, though in a lukewarm, routine way. Unlike the thematically similar document adopted by the government of Boris Tadić in 2011, this one didn’t stress that the struggle over the national issue and the European integration of Serbia are not only not contradictory, but are deeply synergistic. Ideologically charged, and complete with the cordial message of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the All-Serb Assembly wasn’t a gathering that classified Serbia and Republika Srpska in the so-called “Collective West”.
In a way, Vučić’s party is also an indirect winner of the EP elections, although Ursula von der Leyen isn’t Angela Merkel, even though she’s shown understanding for Vučić
In order to assuage his “oath keepers”, it turned out that Vučić was able, immediately after Saturday’s Assembly, to join the commemorating of “European Election Night 2024” on Sunday evening, and to cast a symbolic vote. He was welcomed to Belgrade’s Hotel Metropol by EU Delegation Head and Ambassador Emanuele Giaufret. With this gesture, Vučić quickly attempted to swing the pendulum back and show, for the umpteenth time, how well-established and well-functioning his system of mutually functional paradoxes is, as one of the more important parts of his technology of governance. Vučić subsequently conversed over the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron, emphasising that they discussed “strategic cooperation”, which contradicts the dominant anti-Western (pro-Russian) narrative in Serbia’s media sphere. Okay, so Macron isn’t exactly Orban – Vučić’s absolute favourite EU leader – but the Serbian government stresses that Macron is at least capable of listening to the Serbian side and showing a degree of sensitivity. Vučić also spoke with General James B. Hecker, commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa, whom he thanked for the KFOR troops that serve to guarantee the peace and security of Serbs in Kosovo, and expressed his satisfaction with the “mutual trust that has been built”. Vučić’s pro-Putin supporters ignore these moves, branding them “tactical” and not representing Serbia’s core commitment. And that suits Vučić’s marketing.
Despite SNS having signed a Cooperation Agreement with Putin’s United Russia, and despite SNS President and Serbian PM Miloš Vučević having stated that the party shares common core values with the Communist Party of China, we shouldn’t forget that it was back in 2016 that SNS became an associate member of the European People’s Party (EPP), winner of the recent European Parliament elections – meaning that, in a way, Vučić’s party is also an indirect winner of the EP elections, although Ursula von der Leyen isn’t Angela Merkel, even though she’s shown understanding for Vučić, and the Germans referred to Merkel as “Mutti” (Mummy), which is how Vučić treated her politically.