Brnabic hurls insults at Picula over condemnation of assault on Djilas

NEWS 20.12.202420:24
ANA BRNABIĆ
Tanjug/Sava Radovanović

Serbian Parliament speaker Ana Brnabic hurled harsh insults at European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia Tonino Picula and called for his resignation over his statement strongly condemning the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) members’ assault on opposition leader Dragan Djilas.

In a post on X, Brnabic disputed Picula’s characterization of the incident as an attack on Djilas, saying the rapporteur is “an embarrassment to the European Parliament,” “corrupt,” “biased,” and “politically motivated.” She accused him of “grossly abusing the function of rapporteur even before he officially visited Serbia for the first time.”

Brnabic said she is asking everyone from the European Union (EU), especially the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret, to watch the video footage of the Thursday evening incident, which occurred while SNS members were putting up offensive posters targeting Djilas.

“Just one logical question – Mr. Picula, are you blind or corrupt? And you are not blind… As the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, I expect the resignation of Mr. Picula from the position of the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, because of everything he has shown with this announcement, and what we warned about before – because he is biased, politically motivated and because he, even before he officially visited Serbia for the first time, grossly abused the function of rapporteur,” Brnabic wrote in the post.

Earlier, Picula posted on X that he strongly condemns the attack on the leader of the opposition Party of Freedom and justice (SSP), Dragan Djilas and on SSP member Djordje Aleksic.

“Public space must not be a training ground for violence against political rivals. Clusters cannot be opened with fists,” Picula wrote, alluding to Belgrade authorities’ expectations that the EU will open Cluster 3 in accession talks with Serbia in January.

Footage shows Djilas approaching ruling SNS activists who were putting up posters against him, and questioning them about their actions, which led to a heated exchange. Djilas and Aleksic were subsequently attacked and received multiple blows from the SNS activists, requiring treatment at the emergency center.

Brnabic and other officials have accused Djilas of provoking the attack and portrayed the SNS activists as victims, while Djilas claims that he and Aleksic were the ones who were attacked first.

Djilas said that the assault on him is “proof that the violence against students, citizens, and the opposition” in Serbia is orchestrated by the Serbian Progressive Party and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.