With Russian symbols, Serbian right-wingers protest against the agreement with Kosovo

On March 24, supporters of four right-wing opposition parliamentary parties blocked traffic for an hour in front of the Serbian Government building in central Belgrade, demanding the rejection of the Agreement on the normalization of relations with Kosovo.

The Dveri Movement, Zavetnici (The Oathed), the New Democratic Party of Serbia and the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia called for the resignation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić for what they called “treason” and the announcement of early elections.

The participants of the rally carried the banners “No capitulation” and “Vučić resign”, while some also wore t-shirts with the letter Z, a symbol of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

In the protest was also Radomir Počuča, who as a mercenary from Serbia, in 2014, fought with the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

In 2016, Počuča entered into a plea agreement with the High Court in Belgrade and was sentenced to a year and a half in prison, as well as five years of probation.

Today he is a member of the right parliamentary party Zavetnici.

The Dveri Movement, Zavetnici, the New Democratic Party of Serbia and the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia announced in protest that in other cities “across Serbia” they have organized gatherings and “blocking” the headquarters of the institutions.

“If there is no revocation of the acceptance of the new Western ultimatum, then the only solution is the resignation of the president of the Republic and the Government of Serbia, as well as to have extraordinary elections at all levels”, said the leader of the Dveri movement, Boško Obradović , in a speech to journalists, during the protest in front of the Government in Belgrade.

He also warned of the filing of criminal charges against the president of Serbia for, as he said, “the criminal offense of recognizing the occupation and the destruction of the constitutional order” and that he will also be referred to the Constitutional Court.

The protest in the center of Belgrade, with the motto “No capitulation”, began at 12:44 p.m., as an allusion to United Nations Resolution 1244 on Kosovo and on the day when NATO bombings began in the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999.

On March 24, 1999, NATO began its intervention due to the exodus and war crimes committed by Serbian forces against the Albanian population during the war in Kosovo.

On March 23, Dveri, Zavetnici, the New Democratic Party of Serbia and the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia sent a letter to European Union (EU) officials and embassies of countries that have not recognized Kosovo, in which they expressed their opposition to against the European agreement and assessed that it is “worthless”.

The letter was addressed to the representatives of the EU, Josep Borrell and Miroslav Lajcak, the deputies of the European Parliament and the embassies of Spain, Romania, Greece, Cyprus and Slovakia. The four right-wing opposition parties also staged a protest on March 17, the day before a meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Ohrid, North Macedonia.

Several thousand people then walked from the Church of Saint Sava to the building of the Presidency of Serbia, with the request that Vučić reject in Ohrid the European plan for the normalization of relations with Kosovo, calling this agreement a “betrayal”.

Among the participants in the protest was a group of men who wore clothing with the symbols of the Russian paramilitary formation Wagner.

The parties that called for the protest maintain close ties with Russia, while their representatives have traveled to Moscow in recent months.

The right-wing parties and movements that organized the protest have 28 of the 250 parliamentary seats in the Serbian Assembly.

The representatives of this group consider the agreement with Kosovo as an ultimatum for recognition.

In a meeting in Ohrid, on March 18, the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo agreed on the Annex for the implementation of the Agreement on the path towards the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Although the president of Serbia and the prime minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti have not signed any document in Ohrid, the European mediators expect the parties to implement everything the leaders have agreed.

Serbia and Kosovo agreed not to block the implementation of any article of the Agreement.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on March 21 that Belgrade will not implement the parts of the agreement that deal with Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations and that it is not about recognition.

With this agreement, Kosovo pledged to start providing an appropriate level of self-government for the Serbian community in Kosovo, in accordance with previous agreements from the dialogue.

The agreement does not mention mutual recognition, but states that the parties must respect independence, autonomy and territorial integrity.

In Ohrid, it was agreed that these documents will become an integral part of the integration process of Serbia and Kosovo in the European Union.

The EU’s special representative for the dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, explained in an interview for Radio Free Europe (REL) that the parties did not sign the agreement because the Serbian president declared that it had “constitutional limitations” and therefore was not in able to sign the document.

According to Lajcak, despite the lack of signature, the agreement is legally binding for both parties, because they have agreed that this document be formalized through a statement by the EU’s high representative./REL/