Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday that Serbia did not meet the standard of care for its Croat ethnic minority which Croatia had towards its Serb ethnic minority and that Croatia "could start thinking about some reciprocal moves."

Milanovic’s statement was a comment on the negation of the Croatian language in a grammar book for eighth-graders in Serbia.

The grammer book says that “Croats, Bosniaks and some Montenegrins call the Serbian language Croatian, Bosnian, Bosniak and Montenegrin.”

Croatia cannot decide on the content of textbooks in Serbia but “we can start considering reciprocal moves,” said Milanovic.

He stressed that Croatia has very high standards of support for its ethnic minorities.

“Evidently there is no such relationship towards Croats in neighbouring countries,” he added.

Naively fair, but no fools

Milanovic went on to say that there was no reciprocity in Serbia regarding Croatia’s treatment of the Serb ethnic minority.

“We are very often or generally naively fair, but we are no fools.”

Milanovic said that he had attended events commemorating the Srb WWII uprising and the victims of the 1995 war crimes in Grubori as well as the victims of the WWII Jasenovac concentration camp.

Serbian officials, for example, do not visit Oklaj, Promina or other places “where members of the Croat people were killed, cowardly, in 1993, 1994 amid a UN protected area,” he said.

Milanovic noted that in that regard, Croatian Serb leader Milorad Pupovac could not act as a mediator as he was “in an impossible situation.”

“He responded well the other day by ignoring a petty bully’s act,” Milanovic said in reference to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s call on all Serbs to display the Serbian flag on Serbian Unity, Freedom and National Flag Day, 15 September.

Milanovic called it an attempt at manipulating Croatian Serbs.

“They left Croatia thanks to Belgrade. They were not driven out by the Croatian Army.”

Vucic’s mouthpieces

Milanovic also noted that he did not listen to statements by ‘Vucic’s spokeswoman Ana Brnabic.’

“The only person speaking through their different copies is the Serbian president, all the others are his mouthpieces. It makes no sense to engage in debates with them,” he said.

Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said on Monday that Milanovic’s statement in September that he was also the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina nationals who have Croatian citizenship was unbelievable, expressing surprise about the lack of any reaction from the European Union.

“We are the European Union, they are not. If they continue behaving this way, it is a question when they will be,” Milanovic said.