Vučić Pulls Out Prespa From the Opposition Benches: He Compares the Student List to Zaev's Government

Aleksandar Vučić, after more than a decade in power, now speaks as the leader of the opposition in Serbia. Since the 25 October election, won by the Student List, his addresses arrive via Instagram and TikTok, and this time the topic was an interview with Andreas von Beckerath, head of the EU delegation in Belgrade.

Von Beckerath reportedly said he expects the Student List to deliver on the promises it made to Brussels. What exactly those are, he did not specify. Vučić filled in the blanks himself: "alignment" of foreign policy with the EU, meaning sanctions on Russia, and new commitments on Kosovo.

And then he pulled out the example every reader in Macedonia will recognise. "Does this remind you of something? Do you remember that kind of praise for Zoran Zaev's government, for the Prespa Agreement? They changed the name of the country, they did everything, and in the end they achieved nothing," Vučić said.

Macedonia as a bogeyman

For a Macedonian reader this isn't news, it's a biography. The Prespa Agreement was signed in 2018, the name was changed in 2019, then came the Bulgarian veto, then new conditions. Macedonia is still outside the European Union today. What Vučić says is true. The only interesting part is who is saying it and when.

While he was in power, Serbia did not impose sanctions on Russia. Now that power is in other hands, the Macedonian example becomes an argument for "national interests". The warning carries weight. It just sounds different coming from a man whose party was running the country until ten days ago.

Vučić goes a step further: "I fear they will simply deliver what they promised, and that promise is not given for nothing, but for all the support they received in the previous period for toppling the government elected by the people." It is a strange way to describe a government that, by all accounts, came out of an election. Power wasn't toppled in the street - it was lost at the polling stations.

Every move - a catastrophe

The same day Vučić also commented on the new director of Elektroprivreda Srbije, the state power company. "Congratulations on the new director, the question will be whether we'll have electricity at all. People, dark days are ahead of us," he said. The proposal for a four-day working week, according to him, will destroy Serbia. Ten days after the election, the vocabulary is the same as in the campaign - every move of the new government is a road into darkness.

Still, the question he raises is not an empty one. If the new government in Belgrade really did promise alignment with the EU on Russia and Kosovo, Serbia is entering the same game Macedonia played for years: you give, Brussels applauds, and the membership date keeps moving. Will Brussels keep its word this time - or will Belgrade learn the lesson Skopje paid for with its name?