The EU, meanwhile, has been perceived as being unusually cautious about supporting the protests, while Vučić’s working dinner with the bloc’s top leaders sparked controversy in and outside of Serbia. Last week 32 MEPs demanded in a letter that von der Leyen cancel the meeting.
“It’s important that the Commission engages with him [Vučić],” Slovenian Green MEP Irena Joveva said. “But before giving him a platform to use back home for a surreal show, the EU should clearly state that Serbian protesters are demanding the very things the EU allegedly wants from Serbia but has failed to achieve.”
“The EU has lost a lot of credibility in the last years in Western Balkans, and now is the time to finally wake up and radically change policy,” Joveva added.
Srđan Majstorović, chair of the governing board of the European Policy Centre, agreed that the Serbian student movement represents “a positive signal about the vitality of democracy in the region and Europe,” but said Serbians expect EU leaders to “say loudly and publicly what they are probably saying to their interlocutors from Serbia behind closed doors.”
Vučić, for his part, told the state-owned broadcaster RTS after the dinner that he had advised his EU counterparts that “Serbia is absolutely committed to that strategic path” and that “a decision will be made very soon on the formation of a new government or holding elections.”
