Goodbye, globalism? Coronavirus sobers up Serbia to EU hypocrisy (Op-Ed)

The incompetence and hypocrisy of the European Union in dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak seems to have sobered up Serbia, a country that has previously slavishly committed itself to following orders from Brussels.

For the past 20 years, every flavor of politician that ruled Serbia has signed on to the dogma that “the EU has no alternative” and that membership in that trans-national bloc was in the highest state interest – even if joining wasn’t even remotely on the horizon and would require giving up national identity and territory like Kosovo, among other things.

Then came the novel coronavirus, and the EU ban on exports of medical equipment even to obedient vassals like Belgrade, right after the Brussels bureaucrats’ commitment to open borders made Europe the new epicenter of the pandemic. Sure, now the doors are slamming shut, but for thousands of Italians and Spaniards it’s too little, too late.