The Minister of Interior of the Republic of Kosovo, Dželal Svecla, declared on July 14 the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of neighboring Serbia, Snezana Paunović, persona non grata. Thus, the politician from the Serbian Socialist Party (SPS) is permanently banned from both entering and transiting through the youngest country in Europe. According to Svecla, Paunovic embodies "a policy that has been generating violence for decades".
A few days earlier, the minister said on Serbian television "Kurir" that if she had been in the place of then-Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic during the 1999 Kosovo war, she would have "ethnically cleansed Kosovo" - that is, expelled ethnic Albanians, who already made up about 90% of the population of the then Serbian province.
Milosevic was tried before the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague for crimes committed in Kosovo. The war in Kosovo ended in June 1999 after NATO intervention. Thousands of members of the Serbian and Roma minorities were subsequently expelled. The country was then administered by the UN until it declared independence in February 2008. The European Union also plays an important role: it supports Kosovo in state-building and in efforts to resolve the conflict with Serbia, which still considers the country part of its territory. At the same time, both countries aspire to EU membership.
Serious criticism from the EU, demands for resignation
The comment of the European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos on the "Paunović" case was categorical: "There is no place in Europe for rhetoric that justifies, encourages or glorifies ethnic cleansing. Such statements are in direct contradiction with human values and dignity, with the necessary reconciliation, accountability and good neighborly relations on which the EU is built and without which the accession process cannot take place," Kos said.
President Aleksandar Vučić, who has ruled Serbia since 2017, described Paunović's statements as "reckless and irresponsible". "Such statements should not be made publicly and this is neither my policy nor that of the Serbian government; we want to make it clear," Vučić said.
Several Serbian opposition parties are demanding the minister's removal, among them MP Saip Kamberi, a representative of the Albanian minority in southern Serbia. "Is the policy of ethnic cleansing still a political goal of this government?" Kamberi asked in an interview with the N1 news channel. According to him, such a thing should not come from a government that claims to be striving for EU membership.
Paunović received support from Ivica Dačić, leader of the SPS and deputy prime minister of Serbia, who described the reactions as "hypocritical". According to him, the victims of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo were Serbs, but that did not interest anyone.
Paunović: "Kosovo is part of Serbia"
In a statement on his Instagram account, Paunović said that he "does not deviate from the policy of the Serbian Socialist Party", which has "led Serbia in unspeakably difficult historical circumstances" and "has made great sacrifices", whose "name was most often mentioned in The Hague", "has never asked anyone for anything", but has remained "true to her ideals". She stressed that Kosovo remains part of Serbia: "I do not deviate from the strategies of my party in the face of an armed rebellion in a part of our home - Serbia."
Snežana Paunović was born in 1985 in Peć, Kosovo. Since the end of the Kosovo war, she has lived in Belgrade. She has been a member of the SPS since 1992, and since 2024 has been the deputy chairman of the party. She was first elected as an MP in 2013 and has since served two terms as deputy speaker of the Serbian parliament.
"Hate speech is encouraged"
Parts of Serbian society believe that provocative statements like Paunović's serve to divert attention from other issues — such as the ongoing student protests and growing demands for early elections. However, political analyst and historian Dragan Popović believes that the minister "simply said publicly what the majority in the government thinks".
"They actually regret that ethnic cleansing did not happen," Popovic said. "Paunovic's party, the Serbian Socialist Party, actually tried to carry out ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. For this, the entire Serbian military and police leadership was convicted by the Hague Tribunal. We are in a situation where ministers are praising the most serious crimes," he said. According to him, hate speech in the public space in Serbia is "systematically encouraged." and is increasingly accompanied by open physical violence, as demonstrated by the attacks on participants in the commemorations of the Srebrenica genocide on 11 July.
Regarding the prospect of EU membership for Serbia, which has been a candidate since March 2012, Popović believes that the EU "will find it increasingly difficult to keep Serbia on the European path". The behaviour of the government under President Vučić since he took office in May 2017 has increasingly deviated from EU values and laws. "A red line should have been drawn a long time ago that should not be crossed; but Vučić has crossed all red lines", Popović concludes.
Authors: Ivica Petrović | Bekim Šehu | Rüdiger Rosig