During a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić made a false claim, stating that 27 people had died during protests in major European countries, while emphasizing Serbia’s alleged democratic restraint.
Vučić declared he was “proud of Serbia’s democratic behavior” during recent protests, noting that “there have been 27 fatalities in protests across major European countries, while in Serbia no one has been killed in 11 months.”
However, as the weekly magazine Vreme reports, the incidents Vučić referred to did not occur in Europe at all, but rather in Iraq.
According to Iraqi health and security officials, 23 protesters were killed in the southern city of Nasiriyah when security forces opened fire on demonstrators attempting to reach the city’s main administrative entrance. Four more protesters were killed in Baghdad, on the Ahrar Bridge, which connects to the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to government offices and foreign embassies.
Since October 1, Baghdad and much of southern Iraq, which is predominantly Shiite, have been shaken by mass anti-government protests fueled by corruption, poor public services, and unemployment.
How Vučić managed to turn Iraq into a “major European country” remains unclear. Yet, as Vreme points out, the comparison between Iraq and Serbia’s democracy — intentional or not — reveals much about the Serbian president’s perception of civil unrest and state repression.
