The changeling

ALEKSANDAR VUCIC is not a man afraid to change his mind. In 2005, when Serbs were still furious over Britain’s participation in NATO’s war in Kosovo, he co-edited a book entitled “English Gay Fart Tony Blair”. Last year, he employed the former British prime minister as an advisor to the Serbian government. Times change, Mr Vucic explains. During the Kosovo war, he was serving as propaganda chief for Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia’s leader in the days of war and ethnic cleansing. (Mr Milosevic died in 2006 while on trial for war crimes.) But since 2014, the 46-year-old Mr Vucic has been prime minister himself. His chief strategic goal now, he says, is to secure Serbian accession to the European Union—while maintaining good relations with Russia, of course.

Mr Vucic (pictured) concedes that some people consider him “a bad guy”. Most of them are foreigners, but many are Serbs. His critics call him an authoritarian who surrounds himself with yes-men, and recall his days as a rabid ultranationalist. This, he says, is just resentment: “They are living in the 1990s.”