Plenković rejects Serbia’s election interference accusations — Balkan Insight
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has rejected a diplomatic note from Serbia in which Belgrade accused Zagreb of interfering in parliamentary elections. As Balkan Insight reports, Plenković called the accusations complete nonsense.
According to him, it is unfounded to claim that Croatia is allegedly both an external and internal enemy for Serbia and influences its political process and election campaign. Plenković also said that Croatia does not interfere in such matters and that Serbia should focus on progress in fundamental values rather than sending diplomatic notes of this kind.
Belgrade’s statements
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who is the lead candidate on the “United Serbia” list, said that no country had previously interfered in another state’s elections on such a large scale as Croatia, according to his claims, is interfering in Serbia’s upcoming parliamentary elections. He supported the Serbian Foreign Ministry’s decision to send a protest note to Zagreb.
Serbian public broadcaster Radio-Television Serbia reported that the note described attempts to influence Serbia’s electoral processes as unacceptable. The document also concerned Croatian media coverage of the political situation in Serbia.
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Reaction of Croatian politicians
Croatian Veterans’ Affairs Minister Tomo Medved said that Vučić’s rhetoric recalls his role in the military aggression against Croatia in the 1990s. In Medved’s view, this indicates a lack of progress in normalizing relations in Serbia.
Opposition Social Democratic Party representative Joško Klisović called the note unfounded and diplomatically mistaken. He suggested that Vučić is trying to use Croatia to mobilize voters. Centre party MP Marijana Puljak linked the dispute to pressure on Vučić from the student opposition movement.
Parliamentary elections in Serbia are scheduled for October 25. Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party is considered to face its main rival in the “Student List.”
