German Balkanist: “The new German government will take a tougher position towards Serbia”
German Balkans expert and senior fellow at the Berlin Council for Democratization Policy Bodo Weber expects the new German government to be tougher on Belgrade.
This was reported by KlanKosova, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
At the same time, the expert operated with propaganda cliches, such as “the authoritarian transformation of the Vučić regime.”
“I also expect the new German government to take a much tougher stance towards Serbia and the authoritarian transformation of the Vucic regime, while continuing the same policies towards Pristina as the Merkel government,” Weber said. “Although this does not mean that Berlin is happy with everything that the ruling coalition in Kosovo does.”
He also said that the new German government would be "the strongest supporter of Kosovo in the EU" and that it would be more monolithic in its views on abolishing visas for "Kosovo citizens".
“The new coalition, unlike the previous one, which generally supported visa liberalization but Interior Minister Horst Zehofer played a double game for a long time, will be more unanimous in supporting visa liberalization for Kosovo and more decisively in favor of it within the EU.
I expect the new government to be a strong advocate for unlocking prospects for EU membership and to seriously challenge French President Emmanuel Macron, who has blocked EU enlargement for several years.
Only if the French obstacle is removed will the EU again have leverage over Serbia, and only then can we see a serious continuation of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, which are currently de facto dead,” the German said.
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