Vucic Distances Himself From Paunovic's Kosovo Remark
President Aleksandar Vucic said Minister Snezana Paunovic's remark about ethnically cleansing Kosovo reflects neither his will nor Serbia's policy, insisting dialogue remains the only course.
- President Vucic said Minister Snezana Paunovic's remark about ethnically cleansing Kosovo reflects neither his will nor Serbia's policy.
- Paunovic had earlier told Kurir television she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo if she had been in Slobodan Milosevic's place in 1998.
- Vucic called the remark careless and insufficiently responsible, saying Serbia's policy is dialogue and never ethnic cleansing.
- The president recalled that more than 250,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Kosovo, and Pristina had already declared Paunovic persona non grata.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic distanced himself on Tuesday from Minister Snezana Paunovic’s remark about ethnically cleansing Kosovo, saying her words reflect neither his will nor the state’s official policy. His reaction came several days after the same remark drew a sharp response from Pristina and condemnation from Brussels, turning an internal misstep into a foreign policy problem.
Paunovic had earlier told Kurir television that, had she been in the place of then president Slobodan Milosevic in 1998, she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo. The sentence immediately reverberated across the region and became the subject of diplomatic protest. Vucic now called that formulation careless and insufficiently responsible, adding that Serbia’s policy must remain predictable and restrained even under the heaviest pressure.
Why did the president speak out only now?
The reaction did not come at once, and there is a logic to that. First came Pristina’s move, declaring Paunovic persona non grata and permanently banning her from entering Kosovo. Then came condemnation from the European Commission, which reads the incident through the lens of the accession process and regional stability. Only when one minister’s words began to weigh on the position of the whole state did the president draw a clear line.
That timing reflects a judgment that silence was no longer an option. Behind closed doors the remark was read as a burden that had spilled from an individual onto an institution, so Vucic returned the focus to what Belgrade sees as the core issue, the suffering of the Serbian population. The president recalled that more than 250,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Kosovo, and that this experience is the foundation of Serbia’s argument, not the inverted logic the minister had rashly invoked.
The disavowal was also an internal signal. It carries the message that individual statements by officials, however sharp, do not automatically become state policy. Serbia’s policy, the president said, is dialogue, compromise and conversation, and never ethnic cleansing.
What this means for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue
For relations with Pristina the incident arrives at an already tense moment. An entry ban imposed on a member of the government is not merely symbolic; it narrows the space for any working contact and hands the other side one more argument before international partners. Vucic’s distancing is meant to soften that damage and show interlocutors in Brussels and Washington that official Belgrade is not changing course.
What remains open is how far a single sentence will follow Serbia into the coming rounds of talks. Diplomacy is built on predictability, and every outburst of this kind becomes material the opposing side is glad to repeat. With a clear disavowal, the president tried to close the topic before it could take on new life.
Do you think the president’s disavowal is enough to calm reactions in the region, or will the minister’s remark keep weighing on the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue?
