Beyond a simple statement – Analysts decipher the message behind the scandalous outburst of the Serbian minister

An interview with the Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Snezhana Paunović, has sparked a storm of reactions due to a shocking statement.

She expressed that “for our shortcomings and stupidity, if I had been as free as Milošević, I would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998”.

This rhetoric has been strongly condemned by political figures in Kosovo, as well as by the European Union. Anitta Hipper, spokesperson for the European Commission, stressed that while the EU does not comment on individual statements, it is clear that there is no place in Europe for language that justifies or incites ethnic cleansing.

She underlined that such claims directly clash with the fundamental values of human dignity, reconciliation, accountability, and good neighborliness, upon which the European Union is founded.

Security expert Gurakuç Kuçi, in a statement to “Bota sot”, assessed that the recent claims of Vojislav Šešelj and Minister Paunović are evidence that the political mentality that generated the war crimes of the ’90s remains alive in Serbia. According to him, these statements relativize war crimes and ethnic cleansing, highlighting what he calls “the true face of the Vučić regime”.

Kuçi further analyzed: “Within a few days, two statements from Serbia showed us how little the political mindset that produced the crimes of the ’90s has changed. First, Vojislav Šešelj spoke about the executions in Srebrenica as if they were a mathematical operation. He calculated how many people could be shot by seven people in a few hours and then said: ‘You who have never shot anyone, don’t know what it’s like.’ A few days later, Serbian Minister Snezhana Paunović declared that, if she had been in Slobodan Milošević’s place, she would have ‘ethnically cleansed Kosovo’. In the same interview, she described the KLA as ‘guerrillas trained by butchers’, and called NATO’s and KFOR’s entry into Kosovo an ‘occupation’.”

He added that these statements are the sensational true face of the Vučić regime, which it expresses through the mouths of others. According to Kuçi, Šešelj rationalizes the way the executions were carried out, while Paunović rationalizes what, according to her, the Serbian state should have done with the Albanians. The former minimizes the crime through technical calculations, while the latter presents ethnic cleansing as a strategic alternative that Milošević did not carry out completely. In both cases, he stressed, the victim disappears as a human being, and in their place remain numbers, shooting capacities, and labels such as “terrorists” or “butchers”.

Kuçi continued by saying that it is the same ideology that denies the genocide in Srebrenica, minimizes the Reçak massacre, and justifies ethnic cleansing. What is particularly concerning, he pointed out, is that these statements no longer come exclusively from radical elements, but are uttered by representatives of the Serbian state institutions themselves.

He argued that the real danger lies precisely in the fact that such language was once promoted by radical structures, while today it is articulated within institutions. When executions are rationalized and ethnic cleansing is justified, we are not dealing simply with a denial of the past, but with the preservation of a moral and political climate that could allow its repetition.

Meanwhile, another security expert, Arben Dashevci, described Minister Paunović’s statement as unacceptable and a clear reflection of the continuity of Belgrade’s approach toward Kosovo. For “Bota sot”, he said that such a statement incites hatred and glorifies the policies of Slobodan Milošević’s regime, proving that the mindset of the ’90s continues to be present in Serbia.

Dashevci stated that the minister has a completely negative and absolutely unacceptable approach, denying the existence of the state and citizens of Kosovo. He stressed that the message sent by Belgrade with statements praising the policies of the ’90s shows their old mindset toward Kosovo, and that this is incitement of hatred and glorification of the policies of Milošević, known as the butcher of the Balkans.

In conclusion, Dashevci warned that the return of war and ethnic cleansing narratives creates insecurity and is unacceptable for a state aspiring to EU membership. He called on the international community and Kosovo’s diplomacy to react strongly to these statements, adding that it is unacceptable that in 2026 someone who aims to join the EU would hold such a stance.