Von der Leyen Skips Belgrade, Sarajevo Over Elections
The European Commission is postponing visits to Belgrade and Sarajevo until after elections in both countries, a Brussels spokesperson says. Vucic calls it an elegant excuse.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is touring the Western Balkans from September 30 to October 2, but Belgrade and Sarajevo are off the itinerary this time. Her trip includes Tirana, Pristina, Podgorica and Skopje, while the Commission is pushing back visits to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to a later, still unspecified date.
European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta announced the decision at a briefing in Brussels on September 18.
“Given the upcoming parliamentary and general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, the president intends to visit those countries at a later date, on a separate occasion,” Podesta said.
According to Podesta, von der Leyen will discuss European integration, gradual accession and the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans with top officials in the cities she visits, and will tour projects funded by the Union. She added that this marks the sixth consecutive year the Commission president has traveled to the region. Serbia’s elections are scheduled for late October, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s for October 4.
How the Itinerary Shifted Over the Past Two Weeks
According to N1, the original version of the tour included Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. As early as September 1, citing diplomatic sources, the Nova.rs website reported that von der Leyen was planning to travel to Serbia sometime in October.
That planned date, according to KoSSev, raised the question of whether the visit would overlap with the final stretch of the election campaign. On September 7, 118 professors and researchers from Serbia sent an open letter to the president of the European Commission, asking her to consider postponing the visit until after the elections. A few days later, the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group joined the call, with its advisor Vedran Dzihic warning that the visit could be used to mobilize voters.
Vucic: An Elegant Way of Saying It’s About the Elections
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic reacted the same day, September 18, from the Carpathian Initiative summit in Ukraine.
“I think they found an elegant way of saying it’s because of the elections, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia,” Vucic said, adding that von der Leyen is “too wise and too smart a woman” not to know what public opinion in Serbia looks like.
“I think Ursula is too wise and too smart to have any illusions, or not to know what public opinion in Serbia looks like. I’m certain she knows it well,” Vucic said, adding that he is more interested in what voters will have to say about it.
“What interests me are the citizens of Serbia. They vote in our elections, and they will be able to weigh things carefully and choose their own future. Elections and the state are neither a toy nor something to be underestimated,” Vucic said.
The Serbian president did not specify what he believed the real reason for the postponement might be.
Opposition Divided, Echoes of 2023
Green-Left Front co-chair Biljana Djordjevic called the Commission’s decision “the only reasonable one,” pointing to an earlier pre-election visit.
“Ahead of the 2023 elections she came to Belgrade right before the campaign began; it would truly be scandalous if this time she came at the very end of the campaign,” Djordjevic wrote on X.
Freedom and Justice Party leader Dragan Djilas read the same decision the opposite way, as a signal that European institutions do not want their visit turned into a campaign photo op in support of Vucic.
Mladic in the Background, but Not the Official Reason
Insajder has linked the decision to speculation surrounding the burial of Ratko Mladic with military honors in Belgrade, though the Commission has officially denied that this was the reason for the postponement. Von der Leyen said earlier, in her State of the Union address, that glorifying war criminals “has no place in the European Union,” and described images from the burial as “shocking.” Srpske Novine covered that statement in the article “Von der Leyen: Glorifying Mladic Has No Place in the EU.”
No date has been set yet for a future visit to Belgrade and Sarajevo.
