Aleksandar Seselj, the son of the convicted war criminal and Serbian ultra-nationalist leader, Vojislav Seselj, spoke at the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly on Tuesday in response to Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's speech.

Seselj, who is a member of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and of Serbia’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, provoked Prime Minister Plenkovic with his inflammatory speech.

“It is my understanding that the Council of Europe’s purpose is to fight for democracy and rule of law. Today we have here before us a man glorifying Jasenovac, a concentration camp for 700,000 Serbs, Jews, and Romani, who glorifies Bleiburg, a leader of a neo-Nazi regime in the heart of Europe which treats ethnic Serbs as second-class citizens,” Seselj said before being interrupted by the President of CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), Liliane Maury-Pasquier.

I have to interrupt. I ask you to respect our guest and change your tone, which is what I had warned you about yesterday, Maury-Pasquier said, referring to comments Seselj made on Monday when Croatia’s Foreign Minister, Marija Pejcinovic-Buric, held a speech at the Parliamentary Assembly which caused protests by the Croatian delegation.

Prime Minister Plenkovic harshly replied to Seselj’s comment.

“To comment on the Deputy from Serbia, Seselj, I think, Mr Seselj, that you are a living example of the proverb that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, because you represent a political party whose programme and statute, and this is something you should all know, have a clear agenda of promoting Greater Serbia, which would involve the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the territories of Croatia. It is exactly because of your father, even though you’re not responsible for his acts, and who is a convicted war criminal by the ICTY, that we have had a tragedy in the nineties, it is because of the policies by Slobodan Milosevic that my country has suffered, that we have had 15,000 dead, that we have had $37 billion of war damages, and that we are fed up with the policies of trying to disseminate false information – this was the example of fake news – and trying to portray Croatia in a negative manner.” said Plenkovic, whose reply was applauded by the assembly.

Soon after Plenkovic’s speech, Serbia’s delegation sent “a tough protest” to Maury-Pasquier, requesting an urgent meeting because of the Croatian Prime Minister’s ” scandalous” address.

The delegation added that Maury-Pasquier had not reacted timely and had violated the rules of the Assembly’s work by letting Plenkovic continue his “shameful” speech.

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