EU dreams, Russian receptions
13 May 2025
On 9 May, Europe Day, one would think that Serbia's president Aleksandar Vučić would have been celebrating this day with his counterparts and other European leaders. After all, his country is on the path to EU accession. But no, he had other plans on this day. And they don't scream loyalty.
He instead went to Moscow to celebrate the end of World War II at Russia's Victory Day parade. The only other European leaders there were Slovak prime minister Robert Fico and Milorad Dodik, president of the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
His appearance in Moscow came despite EU warnings that such a move could affect Serbia's accession process, ongoing since 2012. The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, said that if Vučić went to Moscow, she'd "have a much more difficult task helping Serbia remain firmly on its EU path."
 | Konstantin Hadži-Vuković Vučić's visit may have hammered the final nail into the coffin of Serbia's EU ambitions. No new accession chapters have been opened since 2021, and in recent years, neither Brussels nor Belgrade has made any serious advances. Although this was Vučić's third attendance at the Moscow parade, the political context is different this time around. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and amid what is arguably the largest protest movement in Serbia's modern history – the EU has grown critical of Vučić's foreign policy tightrope. The student-led protests, now in their sixth month, are calling for early parliamentary elections. While the students won't run themselves in those elections, they plan to support parties they believe can bring change. Vučić responded by saying they "won't have to wait long." Perhaps while in Moscow, Vučić was looking into real estate – maybe even somewhere near ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Because for the first time in years, elections in Serbia might actually be a threat to him. |
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