Eurasia Press & News
Shame on them all together, all those liars, liars, occupation Gauleiter… The worst epithets for international officials and the man with whom he is negotiating the status of Kosovo. The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has not spared the words he used to “slather” on foreign representatives in recent days.
In a comment for the N1 portal, diplomat Srećko Đukić wonders – do any of the statesmen and heads of state use such vocabulary?
Before the elections in Kosovo, the president of Serbia commented on them live in a TV address, calling “the entire Quinta liars”.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, with whom he is meeting, under the auspices of the European Union, which, among others, consists of the three countries of the Quinte (Italy, Germany, France), he calls the “occupational Gauleiter”. For those who don’t know, a Gauleiter was the party leader of the regional branch of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, that is, the leader of a gau – a territorial area of Nazi Germany.
Diplomat Srećko Đukić told the N1 portal that in his long diplomatic career he had never encountered such a vocabulary. “Even if there is one, I don’t know that it exists,” he says and adds that Serbia may have consequences because of this.
“I would never be proud of my president using it. That vocabulary reproduces a lot of negative half-asseds, from our society here, among us that such a vocabulary is used, to penetrate into all the pores of society, to severe consequences on the external plane, because it is not at all naive to call foreign partners, and even if you are at war, by the names they are called, because it can never create a good impression with foreigners, the countries that surround us, the European community, the USA. I think this is something that burdens Serbia’s position in the international community, and I am convinced that we have certain consequences because of it,” says Djukic.
He adds that Vučić can address his voters that way, but the whole world listens to it.
“He doesn’t say, I’m addressing voters now, I’m not addressing foreigners. He speaks on the air, and not only the domestic media, his party media also do not write that he told his voters. This is reported by the world media and they know what kind of President of Serbia they are dealing with,” added the diplomat.
If we look at the website of the President of Serbia with whom he has met , and only this year, we will see statesmen from many countries who have been addressed with harsh words.
So Vučić had a working lunch with Derek Schole, a special adviser at the State Department. He also received the United Kingdom’s special envoy for the Western Balkans, Stuart Pich. He spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Ambassadors of the Quinte countries to the OSCE in Vienna and the highest diplomatic representatives of those countries in Belgrade were among Vučić’s guests, as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary General of NATO for Political Affairs and Security Policy Javier Colomina.
The President of Serbia also met with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Special Representative of the European Union for the Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Miroslav Lajčak, the Rapporteur of the European Parliament for Serbia, Vladimir Bilčik, and a member of the Delegation of the Parliamentary Committee for the Stabilization and Association of the EU-Serbia, Matjažo Nemec.
Vučić also received members of the delegation of the Atlanta Council, met with the head of the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia Emanuele Giofre, with the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Ilva Johansson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Special Envoy of the USA for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar. He was also at the meeting with the Ambassador of the United States of America, Christopher Hill, and he spoke with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, on the phone.
So, only during 2023, more than ten meetings with international officials, whose countries are often “on the background” during the president’s conferences.
Srećko Đukić reminds us of two proverbs – “one who is begged is not scolded and cursed” and “a kind word opens an iron door”.
“And we are in a situation, not today, but for decades, that we are begging many people in the world, our pleas will not be answered with such a vocabulary,” said Đukić.
“At conferences he insults, in conversation smaller than a poppy seed”
We remind you of another case from last year. After Kurti’s decision to appoint Nenad Rašić as minister, Vučić made a series of insults against them and said that he would not appear at the Summit of EU leaders – Western Balkans, which was held in Tirana for the first time in December.
“Nobody from Serbia will be in Tirana on December 6, for the first time, and you can come, get your daily allowances, travel by plane, talk nonsense, talk whatever you want. “All of you from Europe, all of you from the Western Balkans, talk about how Serbia is guilty of something,” said Vučić at the time.
In the end, he went to Tirana.
“But first there was an outpouring of bile and venom, he won’t go there because they are lashing out, shouting, that was perhaps the peak of some anger, hate speech, poisonous speech. Honestly, I was just shocked by how undiplomatic it was, but then I realized it was for internal use. This is an even milder variant – that they lied, that they lie. Basically, it’s all a game, it seems to me that he doesn’t lose much in the eyes of his interlocutors from Europe, for the simple reason that they know why he does it. It’s purely for internal use, he probably tells them that, I have to explain it to them a little differently, to tell them in a language they understand”, psychologist Žarko Trebješanin believes.
Although he is harsh and insults at conferences, Trebješanin believes that he is “smaller than a poppy seed” in a conversation with them.
“He occasionally has the need to cover up some defeats and by showing his teeth a little bit, to be a bit of a jerk, he earns him points with his voters and that is very clear. It is intended for internal use, and for these of his, who are delighted when he cuts so beautifully,” says Trebješanin.
“There he shows great cooperation, condescension and that he is very condescending and quite different, which is basically typical for that type of authoritarian character,” he said.
With this, as he says, he wants to cover up how much Serbia is actually losing in the international field and how much it is surrendering politics, “to slander and make it appear that it is a heroic battle”.
“Of course it shouldn’t be said that way, when you say statesman, it would imply that this is a normal country, that we have politicians who are democratically elected and behave democratically. Since this is not the case, this is in accordance with the real situation. This is a country that has not been built, has no institutions, no diplomacy, no democratic culture. On the contrary, it has a rather authoritarian culture, and this is in accordance with such a culture,” Trebješanin believes.
At the session of the Government of Serbia, which was also attended by President Vučić, it was agreed to proceed with the drafting of a strategic document in the field of foreign policy , which will precisely define Serbia’s relations with other countries, the Government announced. We will have to wait for the strategy itself to see if that strategy will also address the diplomatic vocabulary of the president.
