After vowing that the task of his Serbian Progressive Party was not to “hand over” Kosovo if it came to power, until more recent statements that Serbia’s own wrong policies had “sealed” Kosovo independence, Aleksandar Vucic’s rhetoric on Kosovo has zig-zagged markedly over the years.

“The policy of the new [Progressive-led] government … will be not recognizing Kosovo,” Vucic said in July 2012, according to DW, after his party won Serbia’s general election in May that year.

One year earlier, Serbia and Kosovo began negotiations on “normalising” relations mediated by the European Union. While Kosovo proclaimed its independence back in 2008, Serbia still treats the former province as part of its territory.

A year after the Progressive Party came to power, Serbia and Kosovo signed the Brussels Agreement, adopting a 15-point draft agreement on normalisation of relations on April 17. The text of the agreement was initialled by both prime ministers.

However, Vucic’s stance on independence was unaltered. “Serbia’s policy is that Kosovo is not independent, that we will not admit it [as state],” Vucic said ahead of his trip to the mainly Serbian far north of Kosovo in May 2013, according to Kurir daily.

Serbian media caught sight of Vucic crying in January 2015, at the ceremony revealing a monument to Serbia’s medieval King Milutin, in Gracanica in central Kosovo.

He then urged Kosovo Serbs not to leave their homeland.

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic (C-L), is accompanied by Bishop Teodosije (C-R), as they tour the Banjska monastery, some 10 kilometers from Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, 20 January 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/DJORDJE SAVIC

Three months later, Vucic said during a public appearance that Serbia “will always talk to the Albanians but will never recognize Kosovo’s independence”, Tanjug news agency reported.

“Maybe your dreams will come true. I have nothing against that, you can hope, maybe that will happen for you, but I wouldn’t bet on it much,” Vucic said the same month, answering questions on Kosovo’s recognition put by Albanian journalists during his visit to Kosovo.

During this period, Serbian and Kosovo officials continued to hold meetings occasionally in Brussel as part of the EU-led dialogue process.

Fast forward to July 2017, however, and the Serbian President surprised the public with a letter published in Blic daily, in which he said Serbs “should not put our heads [in the ground] like an ostrich” when it comes to Kosovo, and that reality needs to be accepted.

This letter at the same time urged everyone in Serbia to join a so-called “internal dialogue” on the future of Kosovo.

“It’s time for us as a nation to stop putting our heads in the sand and try to be realistic, not allowing ourselves to lose or give someone what we have, but also not to wait for what we lost long ago,” Vucic pointed out.

Although it was never made clear what phase the “internal dialogue” on Kosovo was in, and what its outcome would be, Vucic had by then clearly modified his language on Kosovo.

“There is no good solution for KIM [Kosovo and Metohija] for us, but compromise implies that both of us [Serbs and Albanians] will be somewhat dissatisfied or somewhat satisfied,” Vucic said on April 13, after the meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Vecernje novosti reported.

He added, however, that Chancellor Merkel “understands what Kosovo means for Serbia”.

Three days later, the President warned that a final solution would not be easy for Serbs, adding that problems “shouldn’t be postponed and need to be solved”, Tanjug news agency reported.

“Remember, if you really want a solution, you have to win a referendum in your country … the only thing I’m sure about is that it [the solution] will not be painless for Serbs,” he said.

On April 25, Vucic stated that Serbia’s success on the path towards EU membership “depends on Kosovo”, and that “we need to solve this issue”, Tanjug reported.

“If you think I’m ready to say tomorrow, ‘You can have independent Kosovo for nothing’ – I am not ready. But, ‘Here you can have Kosovo for something’ – well, let’s see what is that,” Vucic said, Kurir reported on May 7.

Four days later, he once again announced that Serbia’s citizens would have an opportunity to have their say on Kosovo.

He added that “everyone talks about ‘holy land’, but no one wants to live there”, Kossev news website reported him saying.

The same report claimed that Vucic had also said that “Kosovo is for us when we need to score a political slap with someone, and when we need to show with a concrete deed what Kosovo is for us – but then it’s mostly nothing, or even less than that”.

Vucic latest statement on Kosovo, Tanjug news agency reported on May 13, was that “the wrong policy and some moves of Serbia had practically placed a seal on the envelope of Kosovo’s independence”.

The Serbian President also added that he was worried by reports that more people were leaving Serbia.

Read more:

Serbia-Kosovo relations