The scandalous statement of the Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Snežana Paunović, that if she had been in power in the late nineties, she would have “ethnically cleansed Kosovo and Metohija,” provoked sharp condemnation from the opposition, the civil sector, and the European Commission. While the president of the Socialists and Minister of Police, Ivica Dačić, immediately stood up in her defense, this is only the latest in a series of scandals involving the name of one of his closest associates. Before sitting in the minister’s chair, the long-standing MP and current Vice President of the SPS was remembered for charging thousands of euros from the budget of the citizens of Serbia, as the media wrote, for travel expenses on the Peć–Belgrade route, even though she actually lived in the capital during that period.
Paunović, born in Peć in 1975, has for years been considered one of the key faces of the Socialists when it comes to the Kosovo topic. During parliamentary debates, she regularly spoke from a position of tough patriotism and as the “voice of Serbs from Kosovo.”
However, it was precisely the fictitious registration of residence in Metohija that opened her first major scandal and showed that this voice costs a pretty penny.
Travel expenses from Peć for living in Belgrade
During 2021, the media revealed that Snežana Paunović pocketed around 12,000 euros from the budget of the National Assembly in the name of travel expenses for the Peć–Belgrade and return route. This was enabled by the then-regulation of the Administrative Committee, according to which MPs did not have to submit fuel receipts, but their compensation was paid flat-rate, solely based on the mileage to their place of residence.
However, investigations showed that during that period, Paunović had already been living in Belgrade with her family for years, while her registration in Peć served solely as a basis for extracting money from the assembly’s coffers for fictitious trips.
The same year, the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) ranked Paunović at the very top of the list of MPs who cost citizens the most. With total assembly expenses of about 2.6 million dinars, she was right behind her party boss Ivica Dačić and Elvira Kovač. At the same time, she also found herself among the record holders for spending money on official trips abroad, for which she was paid about 625,000 dinars in just one year.
Financial benefits and fictitious travel expenses were not the only violations in her parliamentary career. Back in 2020, CINS published an analysis according to which Paunović was the MP who violated the Law on the Anti-Corruption Agency the most times.
On two occasions, she was late with the legal registration of her property and income. In addition, the Agency determined that in 2016 she violated the law when, bypassing all procedures and without prior checks on conflict of interest, she simultaneously held the position of director of the Pharmacy Institution Peć and the mandate of MP in Belgrade.
“I do not renounce the politics of the nineties”
The latest and politically most dangerous scandal occurred during her guest appearance on Kurir television. Speaking about the events of 1998, the Minister of State Administration openly stated that if she had held power at that moment, she would have “ethnically cleansed Kosovo and Metohija.”
After sharp reactions from the public and Brussels, Paunović issued a statement saying she wanted to remove any doubt regarding her statements, but instead of retracting her words, she decided to defend the legacy of her party, claiming that “propaganda was created around her statement through various interpretations.”
“I do not renounce the policy of the SPS, the party that led Serbia in indescribably difficult historical circumstances, the party that made great sacrifices, the party whose name was most frequently mentioned in The Hague, the party that begged no one for anything in order to remain upright and loyal to its ideas. I also do not renounce the strategies of my party that were chosen for the circumstances of an armed rebellion in the part of the house called Serbia. At the same time, I do not renounce my right to speak about the mistakes we made, nor to analyze what could, eventually, have been different,” Paunović stated, emphasizing that as a Socialist she “speaks the truth that many are afraid of.”
The Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo, Xhelal Sveçla, announced that he has declared the Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government of Serbia, Snežana Paunović, persona non grata and banned her from entering or transiting through the territory of Kosovo and Metohija.
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Source: Nova.rs, Photo: Milos Tesic / ATAImages
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