Swiss magazine Weltwoche: Aleksandar Vučić - a man of peace and a bridge builder

As Keppel states, Vučić's appearance reminds us of the rich variety and fascinating power of European cultures.

For Weltwoche, the focus these days was Vučić's visit to Zurich, and Keppel writes that the President of Serbia is the man who impressed him during an interview for his magazine last summer.

"He chooses his words carefully. Vučić seems thoughtful. He speaks quietly in an age when everyone is shouting. While others clench their fists, he extends his hand in a friendly greeting. A man of peace, more an intellectual than a politician, one might think he is a professor at the Faculty of Law", Keppel describes the President of Serbia.

He adds that he likes Vučić's historically conscious calmness, as well as skepticism, which he personally considers "realism marked by life experience". He notes that Vučić, along with Serbia, is on the explosive tectonic lines of division and on the religious fronts of European history, recalling that the Serbs heroically defended the Christian West from the onslaught of Muslims.

"We are dealing with a people of survivors and survival artists, winners and losers, who never give up and who have turned their sense of nationalism into resistance in difficult times." Between East and West, balancing over gorges and chasms, the president tries not to lose his balance", is Keppel's impression.

He notes that we are once again living in a time of war, and the "collective West", which includes Europe, and unfortunately also his no longer completely neutral country, Switzerland, assures himself that he is waging a civilizational defensive war against the "hordes from the east with Putin, the new Genghis Khan, on top”.

On the other hand, he states that the "legions of Moscow" see themselves in a defensive war against the Western NATO Alliance, which is "marching insatiably to the east", behind which America stands, "armed to the teeth with ideals, good intentions and the consciousness of universal election by God to the gate suppresses the natural forces of chaos and barbarism".

From this he concludes that we are dealing with two directly opposed narratives - with a quarrel between pigeons, which do not seem to be ready to listen to each other.

"Perhaps one can learn from a politician such as Vučić what it means to insist on a utopia of understanding, especially when large predatory powers in the war for territories mean that only bombs are still talking," says Keppel.

He also writes that he perceives Vučić as someone who belongs to bridge builders, who fight for understanding. Although, as he himself says, perhaps many from Kosovo and Vučić's critics see it differently, he expresses an honest impression from several conversations and discussions with people who have known the president of Serbia for much longer.

He also wonders how to proceed with Russia, China, with all the so-called authoritarian states, or autocracies or dictatorships, as they are called today.

"When I look at how today in the media, all-knowing experts for East and West describe the situation, I'm not sure if their war terms are appropriate. For example, Timothy Snyder. A historian at the elite Yale University describes Putin as a dictator of the worst kind. Many repeat it after him. The same Snyder, however, describes the democratically elected President of the USA, Donald Trump, without quotation marks, as a "fascist". Is it still science? Or demagoguery? Trump is certainly not a fascist. What does Snyder make of Putin?", compared Keppel.

He warns against believing in all the propagandist cries, which come from both sides, saying that the Swiss in particular should keep a cool head, which, he underlines, does not mean justifying Russia, nor rejecting the West.

"But I remain convinced that on this planet, the only one we have, we are doomed to cooperation, to free trade, to the cessation of wars and conflicts, and not to their expansion," says Keppel.

We should, he is convinced, avoid using our words and actions to inflame other nations and their governments, to encourage feelings and political development there that we would not like.

"We have often participated in the creation of the monsters we face," Keppel said. That is why he states that it is now important to remove those monsters, more sobriety, more facts, more respect for other peoples, countries and cultures.

He reminds that the Bible also teaches to "love the enemy".

"We could try that once."

"Aleksandar Vučić is an interesting, atypical politician and statesman, a quiet Serb in a loud age, who reminds us of the rich variety and fascinating power that European cultures still have," concluded Keppel in his editorial.