Aleksandar Vučić has attacked EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos after she canceled her planned visit to Serbia over the glorification of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić.
Kos’s message was straightforward: Mladić was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and glorifying him is incompatible with the values required for Serbia’s European path.
Vučić’s response?
He called it “stupid.”
“The explanation was extremely brief, but stupid, as usual,” Vučić told reporters, questioning who exactly had glorified Mladić and sarcastically suggesting that Serbia should have prevented people from attending the memorial events or even stopped the funeral.
Kos had made clear that her decision was not about preventing a family from mourning.
It was about what Serbia chooses to glorify publicly — and what that says about the country’s European ambitions.
“Ratko Mladić was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Kos wrote. She said the glorification surrounding his death was incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built and stressed that those values are “not negotiable.”
That appears to be precisely where the problem lies.
Because Serbia wants to be treated as a serious EU candidate while, at the same time, a convicted war criminal is being publicly celebrated and returned to Belgrade amid state involvement and military honours. Mladić’s remains were transported from The Hague on a Serbian government aircraft, with Justice Minister Nenad Vujić accompanying the family.
European officials have increasingly made clear that this is not being treated as a private matter.
Kos has called Serbia’s handling of Mladić’s funeral an important test for its European future. The EU has also warned that glorification of convicted war criminals is incompatible with European values.
And instead of addressing that criticism, Vučić chose to attack the person delivering it.
He accused Kos of being the person who is always first to deliver something negative about Serbia.
But attacking the messenger does not answer the question she raised.
Was Ratko Mladić convicted of genocide? Yes.
Was he convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity? Yes.
Is he now being publicly glorified in Serbia? That is precisely what Kos is condemning.
And there is an uncomfortable contradiction at the centre of this entire episode.
Belgrade wants the benefits and credibility of the European project while resisting one of its most basic expectations: confronting the past and respecting the victims of war crimes.
Kos has now made the EU’s position unmistakable.
European values are not a menu from which Serbia can choose only the convenient parts.
And calling the message “stupid” does not make it disappear.
It only makes the distance between Belgrade and Brussels harder to ignore.
