Protests around alleged electoral fraud & more – 4th Jan 2024

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 4th of January twenty twenty four A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Saturday the 30th, the 13th consecutive demonstration since the 17 December parliamentary and local elections took place in Belgrade, where thousands of citizens gathered to protest against the alleged electoral fraud.

In the elections, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, won with around forty percent of the votes, marking the clear win against other parties and the opposition coalition Serbia Against Violence which got around twenty percent of the votes. However, the Serbia Against Violence coalition, as well as other groups and initiatives accused the ruling SNS party of electoral fraud, alleging many irregularities.

Dissatisfied with the results, opposition groups and citizens organized protests and called for the government to annul the results of the elections. On Saturday, the attendees of the protest called for the EU to investigate the alleged irregularities and to organize new polls.

However, the opposition parties have decided to suspend daily protests, mostly because of the upcoming orthodox holidays, but also because of the relatively low turnout. Despite the heavy accusations from both the opposition and the citizens dissatisfied with the ruling regime directed at the SNS party and president Vucic, the citizens showed less and less interest in participating in the protests.

Milan Protic, a historian and former ambassador, said that the citizens are tired of protesting, noting that the mass protests against the regime and Vucic started back in May of twenty twenty three. Protic said that it is unclear whether the fight against the election fraud will succeed, adding that the reason for that is the ruling party’s disregard for democracy and justice.

In other news about politics, Kosovo’s president Vjosa Osmani has recently stated that the Constitutional Court should give Kosovo the final assessment of the draft statute of the Association for Serbian Municipalities, and has asked the opposition to cooperate. However, Glauk Konjufica, the chairman of the Kosovo assembly, together with the opposition openly opposed the draft statute, adding that it goes against Kosovo’s Constitution.

Serbia and Kosovo had reached an agreement on the establishment of the Association for Serbian Municipalities in twenty thirteen, but it was never implemented. Last October, Kosovo and Serbia representatives met in order to advance in the normalization dialogue, however Serbian president Vucic refused to sign the agreements he was presented with.

On Friday 29th, a Belgrade-backed party of Kosovo Serbians, Serbian List, called for a meeting with the international community over a decision to allocate nearly 28,000 square meters of land in the North Mitrovica municipality to the Interior Ministry. Kosovo intended to use the land for police bases, despite the EU noting that the expropriation procedures raise concerns about property rights in the Kosovo north. Serbian List said that Kosovo made the decision to allocate the land without previously consulting anyone and without any prior public discussion.

Recently, Kosovo has alleged that the four Serbian-majority municipalities in the north owe around thirteen million dollars to Kosovo’s energy transmission network, KOSTT. Serbian List said that with this accusation, Kosovo tried to “cause new tensions and threaten the peace and security of citizens”.

Speaking of disputes, despite Serbia implementing the decision to grant the permit of free movement to the vehicles with Kosovo-issued license platesthat we covered in last week’s episode, Kosovo’s PM Kurti accused Serbia of passing the decision in an attempt to deflect the criticism from the EU and the US following the irregularities in the December 17 elections.

Kurti said that president Vucic was aware of the fraud they had committed during the elections, which included bribing citizens to support his party and secretly bringing people from foreign countries to illegally vote in his favor. Kurti then said that Kosovo will respond to Serbia's decision on the free movement of vehicles as soon as Kosovo’s border police verifies Serbia’s commitment to the decision.

(6) While Serbia is putting in the effort to reduce tensions with its neighbors, the Serbian military is actively trying to reinstate the mandatory military service.

The General Staff of Serbian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense said that they will launch an initiative to cancel the decision on the suspension of military service which the government made in twenty eleven. The government replaced the conscription with voluntary service and the choice of a career in the military for both enlisted and commissioned personnel. However, the Serbian military explained that they aim to improve the security of the country by training a large number of citizens to defend the country if needed. The General Staff of Serbian Armed Forces also noted that the mandatory military service will not be longer than four months.

In other news…

Milorad Dodik, the president of Bosnia’s Republic of Srpska, said in an interview on Friday the 29th, that he intends to weaken Bosnia to the point where it will tear apart. Dodik said that if anyone attempts to use international intervention to further strengthen Bosnia’s multi-ethnic institutions, all Bosnian Serbians will quit, thus driving the country to the state of dysfunction. He acknowledged the US's dissatisfaction with his opinions and views, and said that such condemnation from the US will result in the Republic of Srpska declaring their independence from Bosnia.

For the past decade, Dodik has been advocating for Republic of Srpska’s separation from Bosnia, but has repeatedly faced condemnation from the US and the EU, even facing sanctions for his policies and his support for Russia.

On that note about supporting Russia,

Dejan Delic, the director of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce office in Russia, said that around nine leading Serbian exporters to Russia are funded by EU-based companies in Serbia. Since Russia and Serbia have a signed Free Trade Agreement for nearly all the goods they mutually import and export, it makes Russia a great market for the EU through Serbia. This is mostly because Serbia is one of the few European countries that has not imposed sanctions to Russia for their aggression against Ukraine. In the first nine months of twenty twenty three, the export of Serbian goods to Russia was around thirteen percent higher than in the same period in twenty twenty two, amounting to around 900 million dollars.

On Monday the 1st, Serbia acquired the presidency of the one-year Central European Free Trade Agreement, or CEFTA. Tomislav Momirovic, the Minister of Internal and External Trade in Serbia, said that the CEFTA presidency is very important for Serbia, as they are faced with a blockade of trade in Serbian goods in Kosovo. Serbia is also experiencing one of the highest inflation rates in Europe, with the current year-on-year inflation reaching around eight percent in November of twenty twenty three.

Momirovic noted that the CEFTA presidency will help Serbia overcome the mentioned economic challenges. CEFTA member countries are among Serbia’s key economic partners, and Serbia has a major trade surplus with them. These countries include Poland, Hungary and Slovenia, among others.

While on the topic of economy, as of Monday the 1st, the minimum wage in Serbia has increased by around eighteen percent, amounting to around 400 dollars a month. The salaries of the employees in the public sector rose by around ten percent, while pensioners got a raise of around fifteen percent.

On another positive note, the annual festive market in Pristina, Kosovo, featured stalls with volunteers that sold cards decorated with the drawings made by children with autism, for the purpose of raising the money for a local Autism Speaks Up NGO which provides training and educational services for autistic children.

Aside from hot chocolate, soft drinks and cakes, the stall featured brightly colored postcards with festive images of Santa Clauses, reindeers, Christmas trees and other motifs, each with a “Happy End-of-Year Holidays” message inside. The volunteers said that all the proceeds from the stall’s sales will fund the Autism Speaks Up NGO.

Aaand that's it for this week!

Happy New Year from the Rorshok family! These are our wishes for twenty twenty four: 1) that you tell your friends about us. 2)... Noup, that’s about it.

Remember you can help us financially with the link in the show notes.

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!