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BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday denounced the Australian government for what Novak Djokovic called “harassment”, calling the legal process that led to the tennis star’s deportation the day before the Australian Open kicked off as “Orwellian”. ” and said that the actor would be welcomed at his home.
“I spoke to Novak a while ago and encouraged him and said I couldn’t expect him to come to Serbia and return to his country and be in a place where he was always welcome,” Vucic said. Mr Djokovic said the day he left Australia after a legal dispute over his coronavirus vaccine status.
“They think they are humiliating Djokovic with this ten days of harassment, and they actually humiliated themselves,” Vucic said.
In Serbia, where Mr. Djokovic is deeply respected and widely respected as one of his country’s biggest sports stars, even those who do not support decision to remain unvaccinated He said he was mistreated and mistreated.
A member of Serbia’s pandemic response team and leading voice in urging people to get vaccinated as the rapidly spreading Omicron variant brings a new wave of infections. Predrag Kon joined those who voiced outrage.
“I was shocked by the decision,” he wrote on Facebook. “This is by no means in line with the spirit of the International Health Regulations, which speaks of the free movement of passengers, goods and services. I wish this had never happened.”
Vuk Jeremic, Serbian foreign minister from 2007 to 2012 before serving as head of the United Nations General Assembly, said Mr Djokovic’s refusal to be vaccinated should be seen in the context of the region.
“Unfortunately, this is the prevailing opinion in much of Southeast Europe, the underlying reasons being deep and related to a general distrust of governments and institutions after decades of horrendous corruption and growing inequality,” said Mr. Jeremic.
But he said he in no way justified the events as they were.
“The attitude of the Australian government towards him is utterly disgraceful,” Mr. Jeremic said in an email sent as Mr. Djokovic’s legal team presented their arguments in court.
A panel of three federal judges ruled that the Australian immigration minister had the right to revoke the unvaccinated tennis star’s visa on the grounds that the player could pose a risk to public health and order.
Mr Jeremic described the Australian government’s mantra in the case as “rules are rules” – hypocrisy.
“All other tournament participants who received a medical exemption from the same medical board received the same visa and entered Australia without any hindrance,” said Mr. Jeremic. “Novak is the victim of the ingenuity of shameless populists, driven only by snapshot opinion polls.”
After revoking Mr Djokovic’s visa for the second time, all the Australian government had to do to win the case this weekend was to show that the tennis star could do harm if allowed to stay in the country despite the lack of a coronavirus vaccine.
In Serbia, however, the decision to expel Mr. Djokovic from Australia was met with anger. On Sunday, the headline of Kurir, a leading tabloid, took over the air: “Shame on Australia! The biggest shame in the history of sports happened in Melbourne.”
The Serbian Tennis Federation said it was a victory of politics over sport.
Mr Djokovic said in an emailed statement that he was “extremely disappointed” but respected the decision. He left Australia for a flight to Dubai a few hours after publishing the statement, which his team said would be their final comment on the matter until the end of the Australian Open.
Although Mr. Djokovic said he was uncomfortable with all the attention and hoped the focus could return to tennis, there was agreement in Serbia that the issue was being handled poorly. Many believe that Djokovic would not have been treated the same if he had come from a wealthier country.
The tennis player’s father, Srdjan Djokovic, who is known for his humility and likening his son to Jesus Christ during the ordeal, broke a few days’ silence to repost an image on Instagram Sunday morning.
Pictures of his son winning trophies were captioned with the words: “The attempt to assassinate the world’s greatest athlete is over, 50 bullets to Novak’s chest.”
Confusion could have been avoided if Australia had made it clear that the player had to be vaccinated in order to enter and play in the country, Mr. Vucic said.
Australia vs Novak Djokovic
The Serbian leader accused lawyers representing the Australian government of not telling the truth. In particular, he objected to the way Serbia’s coronavirus vaccination rates were presented in court.
“They say less than 50 percent of vaccinated citizens are in Serbia and officially 58 percent,” he said.
Mr. Vucic was giving figures for adults, but the vaccination rate for the country’s total population is around 50 percent. According to Our World in Data. While this rate is higher than in some other Central and Eastern European countries, it is much lower than in most of Western Europe.
It’s also well below the 91.6 percent of the fully vaccinated over-16 population in Australia, a figure cited by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, a figure the government says could undermine Mr Djokovic’s presence in the country.
Mr Djokovic has remained largely silent on the vaccine, but said he was against the idea of making the vaccine mandatory for travel before coronavirus vaccines were available in April 2020.
“I’m no expert but I want to have the option to choose what’s best for my body,” she said. “I’m open minded and will continue to research this topic because it is important and will affect us all.”
He admitted he had not been vaccinated when he arrived in Australia this month, but submitted evidence of previous coronavirus infection to gain an exemption for travel.
Ultimately, however, the case, both in Australia and Serbia, revolved around the technical aspects of the case and more around the symbolism of the moment.
For Australians enduring some of the world’s longest pandemic quarantines, Mr Djokovic’s decision not to be vaccinated went against collective efforts to stop the virus.
In Serbia, Mr. Vucic and others have often attributed the treatment of the country’s star tennis player to the country itself. Serbia will not treat athletes this way, the President said on Sunday.
“We will show that we are better than the Australian government,” he said.
Mr Vucic said Mr Djokovic remained a hero in his homeland despite losing the fight to compete in Australia.
“He can return to his country and hold his head high and look everyone in the eye,” he said.
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