Đilas: Serbia has fallen from leader of EU integration to the bottom of the candidate list

Dragan Đilas, leader of the Party of Freedom and Justice and the top name on the “Evropska Srbija” electoral list, said on Tuesday that over 14 years Serbia has slid from the position of leader in the European Union accession process to the bottom of the list of candidate countries, as the newspaper Danas reports.

“Information from Brussels says that Serbia has not only been removed from the group of countries being put on the fast track to EU entry, but has been moved from the second league, where it was with Bosnia and Macedonia, to the ‘concrete league’ where Georgia and Turkey are,” Đilas said in a written statement.

According to him, a strong fifteen-year anti-European campaign, praise of China and Russia, “tales about BRICS,” lies that EU membership would require recognizing Kosovo or mining lithium, and falsehoods that joining the EU would mean Serbia giving up its identity, have made Serbs the only European people who in majority choose Asia over Europe.

“Canada wants economic union with the EU, the mayor of London says the most important task is bringing Britain back to the EU, four-fifths of the people in Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and other candidate countries want Europe. Only in Serbia does the majority not want it, and part says this is no longer an important issue, not a topic,” he added.

Đilas stressed there would be no better life in Serbia until it “returns to the first league.” “Only from the first league can you move into the Champions League. That is why it matters how people vote on October 25. What is written on the scoreboard that day will determine the ranking and the league we will live in for decades to come,” he said, referring to the October 25 parliamentary elections.