Picula in the European Parliament: Vučić gave war criminal Mladić state honors, while striking a pre-election alliance with Šešelj

Croatian MEP Tonino Picula, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, stated in the European Parliament debate on the glorification of Ratko Mladić that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić “bid farewell with state honors to one war criminal, while with the other, Vojislav Šešelj, he made a pre-election alliance.”

Picula said that Mladić’s burial identified the policy of official Belgrade and raised the question of whether Serbia should continue negotiations with the European Union under such a government. He stressed that in the EU, historical revisionism and the relativization of crimes must be fought, recalling that this debate takes place at a time when fundamental European values are being openly challenged.

On the eve of the debate, the European People’s Party (EPP) condemned the participation of high Serbian officials in Mladić’s burial. Meanwhile, European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, told MEP Željana Zovko that the European Commission has made it clear that any glorification of war criminals is incompatible with the values of the European Union.

Mladić, the former commander of the Republika Srpska army, convicted by the Hague tribunal for genocide and war crimes, was buried on September 7 at the Topčider cemetery in Belgrade, with the presence of Serbian ministers, Milorad Dodik, Danilo Vučić and the Russian ambassador to Serbia.

Today’s debate does not close the discussions on Serbia in the European Parliament: in October two more sessions are expected, where the topics will also be the state of democracy and the October 25 elections.

Source: Nova.rs