Flash News

Gjykojeni protestën nga kundërshtarët

Aksident në Greqi, ndërron jetë 16-vjeçari shqiptar

Protesta trazon PS-në/ Zegjineja e ‘meme-ve’ sulmon influenceren: Shëmtirë, diote. Balla kapet me Reuters

Vrasja në Paskuqan/ Autori është gjurmuar deri në Bovillë, ka braktisur mjetin

Publikoi tezën e Letërsisë 20 minuta pas nisjes së provimit, përjashtohet maturanti në Kukës

KRYESORE

Macron Warmly Welcomed in Belgrade, but Differences about Key Issues Remain

Politiko 16 Korrik 2019, 11:51
Macron Warmly Welcomed in Belgrade, but Differences about Key Issues Remain

The first day of a two-day visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Belgrade was marked by a warm atmosphere and apparently good personal rapport with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic, but Macron’s messages to the Serbian authorities expectedly remained the same as they used to be so far - the establishment of future relations between Serbia and Kosovo must be regulated in the shortest possible time by reaching a comprehensive and permanent agreement, and Serbia’s prospects for joining the European Union will only be able to discuss only after the EU has implemented internal reforms.

Besides the different views on these two key issues, the first day of the visit was also a small personal triumph for each of the two presidents.

Macron, the first French president to visit Serbia since 2001, instantly gained the sympathy of the Serbs by the fact that at Kalemegdan, in front of the Monument of Gratitude to France - constructed to thank France for helping Serbia during the World War I - he unexpectedly addressed the audience with a longish talk in a very solid Serbian language.

“It is now my turn to tell you on behalf of my country - France loves you the way you loved it”, said Macron in his address alluding to the engraved words on the monument “We love France they way it loved us”.

“Thank you for an exceptional welcome. We are, you should know, deeply touched by it. You thus show that the message was written on this monument still lives even a hundred years later”, he added.

Vucic, for his part, made an effort the French president to be welcomed with enthusiasm and pomp that was not a bit inferior to those of January, when Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Belgrade; Vucic obviously wanted to let the international public know that Serbia remains open to the West and that its closeness with Russia is not an obstacle, and, it could be said, he succeeded. His Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) reportedly once again brought people from the interior of Serbia to Belgrade by buses, and they gathered as extras at Kalemegdan, completing a photogenic ambiance of a summer sunset with the waving of Serbian and French flags: the scene was made to look good in the TV stations’ reports from Belgrade.

Commenting on Macron’s address, Vucic said that by addressing them in their own language, the French president succeeded in “winning the hearts of the citizens of Serbia”.

“And I am very happy about that. But, do you know why you made it? Not everything you said was easy for our people, but you won the hearts of our people because you did not choose to speak in some four walls, but you came to the people and said to them what you think, and people in Serbia respect this most. You are the only one who came and said - I am not going to speak to 10 or 20 like-minded ones, I want to talk to the citizens. And these wonderful people opened their hearts, they said - the great Macron shows respect for us, for Serbia,” Vucic said.

One of the indicators what significance was given to the visit of Macron was that the public service of Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) arranged a several-hour live program on this topic, completely changing the regular program scheme. Again, the RTS did something like it for the last time only during Putin’s visit.

After a welcome ceremony was organized in Macron’s honor in the afternoon, the two presidents conferred tête-à-tête three times longer than it had been planned, the Belgrade-based electronic media reported, extensively reporting on the course of the visit all day long.

“I think that I have never, or almost never, had such a long tête-à-tête conversation like this one with Macron and it is possible that I have never had such an open and honest conversation,” Vucic said at a joint press conference after the talks.

“We talked, I would say, for so long that it is difficult for me to find a topic that we did not discuss. I spoke the truth and I advocated and struggled for France to help us on the European path and solving the crisis in Kosovo, and said what a high reputation France has in the region, and among the citizens of Serbia,” he emphasized.

Macron said he would help relaunch talks to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo in the next few weeks, adding he would invite delegations from Belgrade and Pristina to Paris along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

He also said that France and Germany would make an effort a concrete solution to be reached in the next few months.

“I trust in President Macron’s help not only to our country but to the entire region. (...) There are different models and opportunities [to resolve the Kosovo issue], and I would believe him in that regard,” Vucic said.

Macron also repeated his well known view that the EU such as it is, with 28 members, evidently does not function and that therefore the can be no enlargement until it is previously reformed, to which Vucic said that he saw enlargement and the EU reform as two parallel processes and appealed that this process of reordering the Union be carried out as soon as possible.

“I spoke with a lot of love and care for Serbia in the hope that a strong France and a strong French President would help us. I am not a day-dreamer and someone who believes that impossible things are possible, but I am convinced that the energy and political enthusiasm of Macron can introduce a lot of change on the European continent and in accordance with this help our country and our citizens in many ways”, Vucic said.

For Tuesday, the second day of the visit, there is a planned talk of President Macron and Vucic with the representatives of the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO).

Të fundit