Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced that he does not expect the status of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SPP) in the European People's Party (EPP) to be changed, Serbian media reported, quoted by BTA.
"As for the EPP, this is an important place for us, the future of the SPP is in the EPP. We are always ready for dialogue, for conversation, and I think that after all the arguments that we will present, everything will be fine. But, of course, this is more a question for the EPP chairman and many other people from the EPP," the Serbian president said in response to a journalist's question.
The Serbian Progressive Party is an associate member of the European People's Party, but on September 9, EPP chairman Manfred Weber announced that the SPP's status was in question and that a debate on this topic was being held in the EPP, with a decision expected in the coming days.
The debate was sparked by epithets that Vučić used against MEPs who attended an anti-government protest in Novi Sad on September 5. Late in the evening after the protest, which led to new clashes between demonstrators and police, the Serbian president gave a press conference during which he called the MEPs "scum" and "the lowest scum".
This morning, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, met in Brussels with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola, who informed her that the MEPs felt offended by the words of the Serbian President on September 5.
Earlier this week, Metzola commented that she expects "every head of state and government, regardless of where they come from, to treat the members of the European Parliament with respect".