How the European Union disappeared from the election campaign in Serbia

In the campaign for the early parliamentary elections in Serbia, the European Union practically does not exist. As the BBC’s Serbian service notes in an analysis published this Wednesday, the theme that once dominated Serbian political discourse — membership of the European Union — has disappeared from the speeches, spots and promises of the main political actors.

President Aleksandar Vučić himself, once the strongest voice of the ‘European road with no alternative’, today speaks of a ‘strong, independent and sovereign Serbia’. At his election rallies, as the BBC writes, the word ‘Europe’ is rarely mentioned — and when it is mentioned, often in the context of criticism of official Brussels.

But the silence does not come only from those in power. The opposition too, which once held high the flag of European integration, has lowered its voice. According to analysts interviewed by the BBC, the reason is twofold: on the one hand, the deep disappointment of citizens after more than a decade of negotiations without concrete results; on the other hand, the conviction that the European theme no longer brings votes.

[Photo: Aleksandar Vučić with the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in Brussels — an illustrative photo of Belgrade–Brussels relations.]

The analysis recalls that relations between Belgrade and Brussels have entered a cold phase: the enlargement process towards Serbia is practically frozen, while in Brussels there is open talk of ‘enlargement fatigue’ and of conditioning the European road on normalisation of relations with Kosovo and alignment with the EU’s foreign policy, including sanctions against Russia.

The disappearance of the EU from the campaign, the BBC analysis concludes, is no coincidence, but the reflection of a new reality: Serbia is entering elections knowing that Brussels’ door, for the moment, is closed — and nobody promises to open it anymore.