Cotric: Demarche should be sent to Hungary

BELGRADE - Head of the Serbian parliamentary committee on the diaspora and Serbs in the region Aleksandar Cotric said Wednesday that he expects Serbian government to send a demarche to the government of Hungary over the incident in which unidentified persons removed, for the third time, the Serbian and EU flags from a building in Budapest which hosts the offices of several Serb minority institutions.

"I expect the Serbian government to send a demarche to the government of Hungary through our Embassy in Budapest, because the perpetrators have not been identified and punished on any of these occasions, and this event has caused fear, concern and unease among members of the Serb community in Budapest and Hungary,” Cotric said in a statement to Serbian media.

"Unidentified perpetrators removed the flags from the building in Budapest's Nagymezo Street which hosts the Serbian Cultural and Documentation Center, Serbian Theater in Hungary and Serbian Weekly Newspaper, and also damaged the holders in which the flags were placed,” he specified.

"Only the Hungarian flag was left standing. The perpetrators also tried to remove the sign at the entrance with the name of Serbian Cultural Center, which was founded by the Serb self-government in Hungary,” Cotric noted.

The Serbian MP underlined that none of the previous incidents have been explained, despite the fact that the police have the footage recorded by a security camera close by.