🇷🇸 Serbia's election winners to keep Brussels track on Kosovo and EU integration Ilija Srdanović, lea

🇷🇸 Serbia's election winners to keep Brussels track on Kosovo and EU integration

Ilija Srdanović, lead candidate of the Student List, which won Sunday's snap parliamentary election, told the US government-funded Radio Free Europe that the new government will continue EU integration and the EU-mediated dialogue with Pristina.

He said the incoming authorities will honor international agreements signed by Aleksandar Vučić's government, including the 2013 Brussels Agreement. However, he added that all agreements Serbian officials reached on Kosovo could be reviewed to check whether they comply with Serbia's Constitution, which defines Kosovo as part of Serbia.

Srdanović would not commit on whether the new government would hand Milan Radoičić over to Pristina. Radoičić, former vice president of the Serb List party in Kosovo, took responsibility for the 2023 armed clash with Kosovo police in Banjska. Srdanović said such matters would be decided under Serbian legal procedures. He also avoided saying whether the new government would hold direct talks with Albin Kurti, saying strategic decisions would come once a government is formed.

On the EU, Srdanović pledged not to repeat what he called the previous government's record of losing 20% of public support for European integration over 15 years, and promised that everything will be done to inform citizens about what EU membership brings.

Asked what would change in relations with Moscow, given that the Student List had previously ruled out sanctions on Russia, he steered the answer back to the EU. He claimed most Serbs don't know what the bloc offers because they've been fed untruths for more than a decade and a half inside a closed-off media space. He said the new authorities will open a transparent dialogue and let citizens choose the direction they believe is best for them, unlike the "regime-driven approach" of the past 15 to 20 years.

When the interviewer asked directly whether the sanctions question was now open for review, Srdanović said it could mean that the citizens of Serbia will decide on that relationship. Pressed on whether that meant a referendum, he said foreign policy should follow the majority will of citizens, as with all other states, rather than the opinion of one man or a small group, adding that anything else is not democracy.

That is a far cry from what another Student List representative, Professor Jovo Bakić, told RT Balkan just a day earlier. Bakić said flatly that there would be no change in Serbia's foreign policy and no sanctions on Russia, calling Russia a great power, a historically important partner and in many cases Serbia's protector. He added that Serbs lived through UN sanctions and know what misery they bring, and that on Russian energy, the new government is there to serve the national interest, not to please foreigners.

Srdanović also called on citizens to refrain from violence and respect law and order, after protesters stormed the pro-government Informer TV on Monday. He said the outgoing caretaker government remains responsible for security until the Student List formally takes power.

🔴 @DDGeopolitics