Vladimir Prebilič made a bit of a poo-poo yesterday in the European parliament. Addressing the recent tragedy in Novi Sad, where a collapsed canopy killed fifteen people and the role that Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić and his cronies played in this, he began his speech in Serbian.

This sent the more nationalistic elements in Slovenia, Croatia and even Serbia flying off the hook. It also showed Prebilič to be a political nincompoop, whose grandstanding came to a screeching halt on a point of order.
You see, due to the small detail of Serbia not being an EU member, the European Parliament does not provide interpretation from Serbian into other EU languages. As a result, Željana Zovko of HZD, a Croatian EPP party, proceeded to make minced meat out of poor Vlado Prebilič.
There are 24 official languagues
The Vesna/Greens MEP was even put on the spot by EP president Roberta Metsola, who reminded him to speak in any of the 24 official EU languages. Interestingly, at that point he switched to English and not, say, to his native Slovenian.
Now, on balance, Zovko has a point and she had every right to make it. Serbian is not an official EU language. And until that changes, Prebilič should not have used it during official EP business. It them rules. Period. That being said, both Prebilič and Zovko can fuck right off as far as pengovsky is concerned.
The former was trying to score points from a tragedy where political responsibility is being actively swept under the rug. Despite that as mayor of Kočevje he failed to keep watch over a chemical company whose malpractice caused a devastating explosion in his hometown in 2022, killing seven and injuring 32 people.
Spare a thought for the interpreters
The latter, however, was licking her nationalist chops and went for the jugular of a political newbie. Apparently, his use of Serbian offended every fibre in her Croatian body, even though she was born in … checks notes … Bosnia-Herzegovina. Over-compensation much?
The only real professionals in this whole debacle turned out to be EP interpreters. The moment they realised Prebilič was not using an official language, they stopped their work. As they should.
And what of Prebilič? On his Facebook page, he insists that the interpreters could have translated his words, were they willing to do so. While that may be the case, that would be a blatant violation of EP rules and possibly of the EU Treaty. Which, no bueno.
Walkback
But ultimately, Vladimir Prebilič ended up walking back his stunt considerably and even borderline apologised for it.
It remains to be seen if he learned anything from this whole debacle.