President talks about Croatia's blockade, Brexit, Srebrenica

President talks about Croatia's blockade, Brexit, Srebrenica

Beta agency reported Nikolic as adding that "fortunately" the European Union is made up of countries "that have common sense."

"Whatever we do - and we have done a lot - Croatia is always using some move to show that it lived to see the day when it is able to influence the fate of Serbia. It is unacceptable that one country can stop another, that has fulfilled all the requirements, from joining the EU," he said.

Speaking about Croatia's position when it comes to chapters 23 and 24, Nikolic said that "with the exception of those daily political uses," he is not worried at all about the Croatian administration "sometimes wanting to show their nationalists that it is still theirs."

"Maybe I'm wrong when I say that a majority of Croatian politicians continue to listen carefully to what ultra-nationalists in Croatia think and say about a problem, and lack the courage to come forward with their own policy," Nikolic told reporters after laying a wreath at a monument in Krusevac honoring the heroes of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo.

Asked to comment on Srebrenica mayor's "message" that the political leadership of Serbia was unwelcome there, Nikolic said that "a hand of reconciliation should be permanently extended, all the way to a hand of humiliation."

Nikolic said that during his meeting with Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina Chairman Bakir Izetbegovic he suggested they should together visit both the places where Serbs, and those where Muslims suffered - but that Izetbegovic never accepted the suggestion.

The Serbian president said that he respects all victims and that all of them need to be grieved, and that "during the war, which was hard and mindless, many Serbs and representatives of other nations behaved dishonorably."

According to him, if the leadership of Bosnia-Herzegovina, "especially those elected by the Bosniak (Muslim) people" believe they should not have good relations with Serbia - "then one should not go there any longer."

Asked whether it will be "easier to defend the 'both the EU and Russia' thesis" after Brexit, Nikolic said that this policy was "the only correct thesis, that has been guiding us, and will continue to guide us going forward."

"Don't think I'm rejoicing in the crisis in the EU too much, because, whatever happens, we as a small country, which has in recent years greatly relied on cooperation with the EU - we will suffer much more," he said.

Nikolic added that he would like the EU to survive and prosper.

"If the EU appraises that we have fulfilled the requirements, we will become a member - if you set requirements for us that we do not want to fulfill, we will not become a member," the president concluded.