Berliner Zeitung: Vucic speaks openly, establishes ties between blocs

BERLIN - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is a man who speaks freely and establishes ties between geopolitical blocs, amongst countries acting within them and amongst responsible people, says Berliner Zeitung publisher Holger Friedrich, who attended last week's Zurich Speech conference, which featured Vucic as a keynote speaker.

In an extensive Berliner Zeitung piece titled Insights Without Illusions, Friedrich noted that the conference - hosted by the Weltwoche magazine - had been a "memorable meeting" and that, on several occasions, silence had fallen on the gathering "due to astonishment, and sometimes due to confusion as well."

Friedrich added that Vucic was trying to mediate between different sides in what was a "friendly and sometimes unusually open discussion."

"Without harshness, without cynical comments like those Hungarian PM Viktor Orban likes to interject," Friedrich wrote, adding that Vucic was speaking both directly and indirectly.

He highlighted Vucic's statement that the currently predominant "principle of hope" is treacherous as it did not work in 1914, 1939/40, 1990 or in Serbia in 1998.

"Today, we have even more to lose, the people of Ukraine have already paid that price. And the conflict will spread unless politicians start taking active countermeasures. That is exactly what is required from the rational point of view. At the end of the day, the biggest loser in the conflict is Ukraine, and Russia and Europe follow," Friedrich quoted Vucic as also saying at the event.