Brnabic: Picula embarrassment to EP, I expect his resignation

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Friday she expected European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia Tonino Picula to resign from his post and noted that his condemnation of an "attack on Dragan Djilas" was an embarrassment to the EP.

In a post on X, Brnabic asked everyone from the EU, especially the EU Delegation to Serbia and its head Emanuele Giaufret, to watch a video showing the alleged attack.

"Everyone, even the most ardent hater of Aleksandar Vucic can clearly see that: (1) Dragan Djilas gets out of his car, accompanied by his bodyguard; (2) attacks, using swear words and insults, young people who put up posters; (3) gets in their face, starts a physical confrontation, and not even his bodyguard can stop him from doing so," Brnabic wrote.

"So, if Dragan Djilas and Tonino Picula are to be believed, the people standing calmly on the street are the attackers, and the man who stops his car, approaches them and attacks them, is the victim? They attacked him by just standing still, and he was attacked by coming up to them to insult, push and beat them?

Just one logical question - Mr Picula, are you blind or corrupt? And you are not blind...

As the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, I expect the resignation of Mr Picula from the position of the European Parliament's rapporteur for Serbia, because of everything he has shown with this announcement, and what we warned about before - because he is biased, politically motivated and because he, even before he officially visited Serbia for the first time, grossly abused the function of rapporteur.

As for his friend, Dragan Djilas, he is a man who was reported by his own wife for domestic violence, because he beat both her and her father, in front of the child. A man who attacks young people with the assistance of his bodyguard, but is brave enough to beat women by himself. A man who, when he was in power, threatened the police only because they stopped him for a traffic violation he committed and promised them that they would lose their jobs, just because they stopped him, a man who had previously physically and verbally attacked students. Such a person is defended by the rapporteur of the European Parliament for Serbia.

Tonino Picula is an embarrassment to the European Parliament," Brnabic concluded.

Earlier, Picula posted that he strongly condemned "the attack on Dragan Djilas and Djordje Aleksic."

"Public space must not be a training ground for violence against political rivals. Clusters cannot be opened with fists!" he added.

In a reaction, Serbian FM Marko Djuric said Picula's statements about the incident involving Djilas were another example of a one-sided and biased view on a situation.

In a post on X, Djuric wrote that he regretted that Picula was using his position to send untrue and politicised messages rather than contribute to objectivity and encouraging of democratic dialogue.