Serbian minister’s ‘Milošević‑style’ remarks spark Kosovo rebuke and EU warning

Snežana Paunović suggested she would have carried out an ethnic cleansing of Kosovo if she had been Slobodan Milošević in 1998, prompting a declaration of permanent unwelcome status from Pristina and a joint EU warning on inflammatory rhetoric.

Snežana Paunović, Serbia’s minister for public administration and local self‑government and a senior member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), told a television programme on 14 July 2026 that, had she been Slobodan Milošević in 1998, she would have carried out an ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. The comment, described by the minister herself as the toughest statement she has ever made, immediately provoked condemnation from Kosovo officials and a warning from the European Union.

Clarification and fallout

Paunović later sought to qualify her remarks, saying she did not intend to refer to mass killings but to the expulsion of people she considered non‑citizens, and that those who chose terrorist acts should be treated as terrorists today.

Reaction in Pristina

Kosovo’s interior minister, Albin Kurti, announced that Paunović would be declared permanently unwelcome in Kosovo. Social affairs minister Andin Hoti added that the minister’s words echoed Milošević’s ideology and revived the hateful rhetoric that fueled the 1998‑99 war.

Serbian opposition and civil‑society response

Opposition parties in Serbia condemned the comments, warning that they could damage the EU‑mediated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. Human‑rights groups, including the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, described the remarks as dangerously revisionist and called for disciplinary action.

EU warning

The European Commission and the European External Action Service issued a joint statement warning that any rhetoric glorifying past violence or calling for forced population movements is incompatible with EU values and will be closely scrutinised. The EU’s Rule of Law Framework links progress toward membership to respect for minority rights and a constructive Serbia‑Kosovo relationship.

Historical backdrop

In the late 1990s Kosovo was a Serbian province within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A conflict between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army escalated into war and a NATO intervention in 1999, resulting in more than 13,000 deaths – the majority ethnic Albanians – and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. Slobodan Milošević ruled Serbia and Yugoslavia from 1989 until his overthrow in 2000 and was later tried at The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The SPS, founded by Milošević in 1990, remains a coalition partner in the current Serbian government but has been criticised for invoking a period associated with repression and international isolation.

Implications for EU accession talks

While Kosovo’s declaration that Paunović is unwelcome is largely symbolic – Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s independence – it could complicate future agreements on freedom of movement for the Serb minority in Kosovo, a core issue in EU‑facilitated talks. The EU is expected to discuss the incident at its next high‑level Balkans meeting and may tie Serbia’s accession progress to a clear rejection of language advocating forced displacement.