Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić stated on Monday that she “does not expect particularly great results” from the visit of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to Zagreb, but she expects the visit to go smoothly and for the dialogue to continue.
“At this moment, it does not seem to me that we have a dialogue; we have Serbia extending a hand, but on the other side, we do not hear that they are ready for dialogue. I expect dialogue to begin and for the visit to go well. That is important to me at this moment,” Brnabić told reporters in Belgrade.
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Her assessment is that the Serbian president “once again extended a hand and went to Croatia,” although this visit was preceded by an “incredible atmosphere for an EU member,” Tanjug agency reports. Brnabić assessed that “it is not right to invite a statesman for a visit, for him to agree, and then to have a reaction like the one you had.”
“Today we even have protests in Zagreb,” Brnabić told reporters, asserting that there was no incendiary rhetoric from Serbia, but that some politicians only reacted to “incredible statements from Zagreb” and that “Serbia has always lowered the ball.”
Brnabić emphasizes that no Serbian government has done more for the Croatian national minority than the government led until recently by Aleksandar Vučić and that “everything agreed upon in the declaration signed by Vučić and Grabar Kitarović in Subotica (in June 2016) has been fulfilled.”
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Brnabić, as Tanjug reports, expects “the dialogue between Belgrade and Zagreb to continue.”
At the time of Serbian President Vučić’s visit to Zagreb on Monday, a protest was held at Ban Jelačić Square, which passed without incidents, and around 1,000 gathered former defenders and widows of the Homeland War told Vučić that he was not welcome in Croatia, expressing dissatisfaction with his visit and the ban on protests at St. Mark’s Square with shouts of “betrayal, betrayal.”
The Association of Widows advocates for dialogue and the development of good-neighborly relations, but on the principles of truth and justice, which is not the case here, said the association’s leader Rozalija Bartolić. On behalf of all victims, she stated that everyone, including the Serbian president, must deserve state honors and a red carpet.
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The gathering was addressed by former defender Vjekoslav Magaš, who stated that it is not some insignificant individuals from Serbia who tarnish Croatia, but ministers in the Serbian government, and that Croatia is demonized in Serbia, alluding to Serbian Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who said a few days earlier that “Ustaše” would greet Vučić on the streets of Zagreb.
At the gathering, Vučić’s war-mongering speech from occupied Glina in 1995 was played, but due to technical problems, those present could barely hear it.
