Citing the likelihood that American voters will remove U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from office in the November midterm elections, President of Croatia Zoran Milanovic allegedly cancelled a meeting with Pelosi.
According to the Serbian newspaper Telegraf, Milanovic allegedly said as much in public when questioned about meeting Pelosi in Zagreb for the Crimean Platform Summit.
Milanovic reportedly stated, “The Americans asked for a meeting; I can’t make it today and that’s it.”
“She’s not in the executive branch,” he said, “and she’ll be leaving the office she currently holds in two weeks anyhow.”
Even though Pelosi is nearly certain to keep her seat in the U.S. House, commentators and pollsters alike are becoming more and more confident that Republicans will succeed in retaking the House and unseat Pelosi as Speaker.
Politicians’ confidence in a Republican win in the lower house has apparently grown to the point where leadership disputes are already erupting, with Fox News star Tucker Carlson allegedly becoming engaged in the contest for the third-most influential post.
Milanovic might also be anticipating the rise of the Republican Party for pragmatic reasons. He has expressed doubts about Ukraine’s eligibility to join NATO and has typically opposed the country’s war with Russia being escalated regionally.
Before claiming that the European Union “triggered a coup in Ukraine in 2014 when the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted,” Milanovic stated in January of this year that “Ukraine does not belong in NATO.”
Most people concur that the events of 2014, which were supported by the West, paved the way for separatist in the Donbass region, the Russian referendum in Crimea, and the majority of the present crisis in Ukraine, even though they disagree with Milanovic’s view.
Republicans have been the most outspoken advocates for peace in Ukraine; Rep. Paul Gosar has called for a stop to foreign aid because of the conflict. A few Democrats have since joined the chorus, possibly out of concern for their party’s chances of winning in November.
This week, 30 House Democrats – including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal – publicly broke from Biden in a letter calling for him to directly engage with Russia to pursue peace talks in Ukraine.