September the 26th, 2026 – Mirjana Rakić has spoken out about Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić calling Croatians Nazis, yet being open in its justification (and glorification) of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić.
Journalist and foreign policy analyst Mirjana Rakić analysed the speech of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić at the UN General Assembly for RTL Direct. She also commented on the reaction of Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and on the European Union’s current policy towards Serbia.
a performance for a domestic audience while ignoring the eyes of the world
Commenting on Vučić’s statement that Croatia is “proud of its Nazi past”, Mirjana Rakić said that nothing else could have been expected from him. “He had to season his performance with something that would sound first and foremost good to his domestic audience,” she said and recalled that elections are soon being held in Serbia. That was, she believes, a way of saying: “Here’s what I told them from a world podium.”
“It’s pretty hard to call Croatia a Nazi country. To justify in that way what they did with Ratko Mladić, to see off with state honours a man who was convicted of genocide – that is truly terrifying,” Rakić stated, adding that Vučić’s statement that Serbia cannot accept such moral categories opens the question of which moral categories he and his voters advocate.
the eu adopts a cautious stance
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in his speech at the UN that seeing off a war criminal with state and military honours is not in accordance with EU values at all. Rakić believes that the European Union has been extremely cautious with Serbia throughout all these years. “Bear in mind that Serbia has a visa-free regime with the EU and the Russian population that goes to Serbia can travel around Europe. They receive European Union funds for further development. They’re on the path to EU membership, and that path will last a very, very long time, if they ever manage to arrive at the end at all,” she explained. She emphasised that no one from Brussels has announced a halt to the flow of money or the abolition of the visa-free regime.
“Obviously a game is being played here. It’s a country in the Western Balkans, there’s the Russian question. On the one hand, Belgrade looks towards Brussels, and on the other hand, it looks towards Russia. That has been tolerated until now,” Rakić said. According to her words, the EU has not even now shown determination and told Serbia that it must prove itself in deeds, and not only in words, if it wants to actually ever hold membership.
