“It is not us but Europe that needs to face reality” states Tomislav Nikolic, Serbian Radical Party leader, in a recent interview with Der Spiegel. He claims that the European Union has divided Serbia into two camps, “good Serbs, and bad Serbs.” The European Union is the one responsible for destabilizing Serbia. No, not ethnic diversity, centuries of history, not even jingoistic nationalism. It is the European Union’s fault. Of course, Nikolic still supports the European Union. According to Nikolic, the Serbian Radical Party believes the European Union is solely responsible for destabilising their country, and they want to be a part of this destabilizing influence. This is doublespeak at its best. War is peace, freedom is slavery.
Nikolic goes on to rant about decisions being made over the head of Serbia, and asks, hypothetically, why Serbia had Kosovo torn from it, rather than being offered the Cyprus solution for Kosovo. Nikolic seems to believe that some sort of similarity between the disvision of Cyprus between Greece and Turkey and Serbia controlling Kosovo exists. I won’t go into great detail here, but suffice to say that there are some serious differences…perhaps Nikolic should consider that the Greek controlled half is comprised of Greeks, and the Turkish controlled half is made up of Turks. Nikolic needs to face some serious facts, the first being that Kosovo held a referendum on independence. It passed. The people of Kosovo have spoken.
The Serbian Radical Party and Nikolic are trying to put on a better face for the international media and are hoping to make themselves appear more mainstream European in this interview, but I don’t buy it. Neither does the Spiegel reporter. When pressed, Nikolic reverts to the same stance that all nationalists do when pressed: he rattles his saber. When asked what would happen if Kosovo tried to join Albania, he responded, “there will be war in Europe.” Serbia has a historic right to Kosovo, regardless of what the population voted. When asked about Serbs in Bosnia, however, Nikolic stated that the population there should have a referendum on their status.
War is Peace.
Yes, Nikolic is right. There are good Serbs and there are bad Serbs.
Good Serbs are Bad Serbs.
