“Shame on you all, you bunch of liars!”: Serbian President Vucic talks himself into a rage Taliban don’t want women in NGOs – and puts the helpers in a dilemma

The images are inevitably reminiscent of the joint performances of Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill from Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. Accordingly, they do not bode well.

At a press conference in Belgrade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, reiterated that they will both “do everything in their power to keep the peace”. According to Porfirije, the smoldering Kosovo conflict has reached a “really serious point that could lead to roads no one wants”.

However, this call for peace is only the advanced part of the message of Serbia’s spiritual and political leadership. Equally clear, both stressed that no one would succeed, “no matter what they try to rip the soul of the patriarch and the Serbian Orthodox Church from the hearts of the Serbian people in Kosovo.”

At the media conference, Vucic got really angry for 15 minutes after Porfirye insisted that an armed conflict would not be good for either side: “Shame on you all, you liars!” shouted Vucic at the height of the conference. his incendiary speech towards Pristina and the Western community of states.

Deep insight into Serbian mental life

The reason for the joint action was the entry ban for the Serbian patriarch, which the Kosovo leadership had issued on Monday. In doing so, she prevented a planned devotion through Porfiria and a meeting with believers at the patriarchal monastery of Pec near the Kosovo town of Peja. Instead, Porfirije and Vucic met for a crisis talk.

The head of the church denounced the denied access to the media as absurd and unique: “The patriarchal monastery of Pec is to the Serbian people and the Orthodox Church what the Vatican or the Lateran are to the Catholics. Now imagine someone forbidding the Pope from entering the Vatican without a reason. Then the whole world would scream.”

Vucic repeated this point several times: “When has a church leader ever been denied access to his own home?” But what’s even worse is that the West is silent about this outrageous incident. Instead, the international community prefers to drive around on a barricade that the Kosovo Serbs in their distress have erected as a sign of protest – on a road that Albanians don’t even use.

In this respect, Vucic’s undoubtedly well-prepared outburst gave a deep insight into his view of things, and even Serbian mental life in general. Kosovo’s leaders have been denying the civil rights of the Serbian population for years, breaking promises about the political unification of Serbian municipalities and arbitrarily arresting Serb activists, the president argued. All this with the approval of NATO and the EU, who played “deaf and dumb”.

But if the Kosovo Serbs revolted and Serbia stood by them, the whole world would fall on Belgrade. The arguments are based on the territorial integrity of Kosovo – the very same territorial integrity that NATO ignored in the case of Serbia when it “snatched Kosovo from our country”.

“This is not just a political slogan”

According to Vucic, the only goal “of the so-called Kosovo state” and the West is now “to expel all Serbs from Kosovo forever”. But the Serbian state will continue to support its compatriots despite all resistance, “and that is not just a political slogan”.

Nevertheless, the Serbian leadership will continue to fight for peace and for a compromise solution to the conflict. The prayers of the Patriarch would accompany them. However, he does not have much confidence, since one cannot negotiate with someone who does not want to negotiate, Vucic passes the responsibility on to Pristina. He politely apologized to Patriarch Porfirye for his loud speech. But he “only spoke the truth”. (aargauerzeitung.ch)