SERBIA: 7 Months After the Tragedy & more – 3rd June 2025

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 3rd of June twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Sunday the 1st, students marked seven months from the deadly railway station tragedy by protesting in over thirty cities. The protest was synchronized in all cities, with the same program and speeches, to symbolize unity among the students. Students and professors spoke about the faculty blockades and the lack of resolution of the students’ demands over the past seven months. The students then called for early parliamentary elections, stating that the current government cannot fulfill their requests.

Recall that students have been blocking their faculties since early December, twenty twenty-four, due to a railway station tragedy in the northern city of Novi Sad which killed sixteen people. Since then, they have put out their demands, which include the release of all documents related to the railway station renovation carried out in July last year and the prosecution of those who attacked individuals involved in activities supporting the students.

On a related note, on Thursday the 29th, the High Court in Novi Sad extended the detention for five people indicted in connection with the railway station tragedy, while transferring another four to three months of house arrest. The nine detained individuals were responsible for the control and supervision of the railway station renovation project.

The Court explained that it had extended the detention of the five defendants due to their high risk of reoffending. As for the four defendants in house arrest, the Court said that it can continue the case with a more lenient measure.

On Wednesday the 28th, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, posted an article on their website accusing Serbia of exporting weapons to Ukraine. The SVR said that Serbia was trying to shoot Russia in the back, despite Serbia’s proclaimed neutrality about Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The SVR demanded that Serbia stop all weapon exports to Ukraine.

In response to the accusations, Serbian president Vucic said that he had discussed the situation with his Russian counterpart Putin, adding that the Serbian government had formed a working group to investigate whether the factories in Serbia’s defence industry were supplying Ukraine with weapons. This investigation is probably a way to calm down Russia.

Despite Serbia’s neutrality, it has exported arms to Ukraine since twenty twenty-two, although it is unclear whether it was a direct export or not. In twenty twenty-four, the media outlet Financial Times reported that the value of weapons Serbia had exported to Ukraine was approximately ninety billion dinars, which is around 900 million dollars.

While on the topic of bilateral relations, Serbia’s callouts to Kosovo police regarding an attack in North Mitrovica have worked, as the Kosovo Police Inspectorate said last week that it is investigating the incident. Two weeks ago, a video showing a police officer stopping a high school student and grabbing him by the neck surfaced online, gaining attention from high officials in Serbia and Kosovo, as well as the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo EULEX.

While the interior minister of Kosovo denied the allegations that the policeman had injured the student, Serbian officials called for the policeman’s arrest. EULEX’s head condemned the attack, describing it as an excessive use of force, calling for the policeman to be held accountable.

On Wednesday the 28th, the National Alliance for Local Economic Development, or NALED, held its 19th Annual Assembly where it presented more than thirty recommendations to the government in order to accelerate reforms and modernize Serbia.

Among these recommendations were the introduction of electronic health records, regulation of flexible work models, and electronic payments of non-tax charges. NALED noted that these changes would increase Serbia’s progress on its path to the EU. A government representative welcomed the recommendations and said that they will continue to cooperate with NALED.

Since we mentioned the EU, a recent Eurobarometer survey on the opinions on the Union showed that among all Western Balkan countries, Serbia has the lowest level of trust in the EU. Around forty percent of citizens in Serbia trust the EU, making Serbia the only candidate country to score lower than fifty percent. In comparison, other candidate countries, such as Albania and Montenegro, scored more than eighty percent.

Analysts said that such a result is not surprising, citing the common discourse in the Serbian media against the EU and constant criticism of the EU from analysts, commentators and professors. However, the experts did say that the score below fifty percent is quite low for a candidate country.

To know more about the poll’s results, check out the Rorshok Multilateral Update with the link in the show notes!

In other news, Belgrade hosted an Anti-SLAPP conference last week where the measures against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs, were discussed. During the conference, organizers highlighted that Serbia is the country with the most SLAPPs in Europe. A Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia said that SLAPPs serve to exhaust the resources of those fighting for freedom of speech. They gave an example of the ruling party members using SLAPPs to intimidate independent media and journalists.

The head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe mission to Serbia said that SLAPP lawsuits pose a threat to media freedom, noting that they have increased in recent years. SLAPPs most often target journalists, activists and civil society members, and are typically brought by powerful individuals, such as politicians, corporations or even government agencies.

On a brighter note, the Center for World University Rankings published its Global 2,000 list on Tuesday the 3rd. The key elements for ranking included education quality, alumni employment, faculty quality, and research performance. Out of 2,000 Universities from all over the globe, the University of Belgrade placed 387th, putting it among the top two percent in the world. It is the highest-ranked university in the region too, with the closest being the University of Ljubljana, in Slovenia, at 440th place. The highest-ranked university was Harvard, while Başkent University in Turkey was at the other end of the list.

The ranking of the University of Belgrade came in the midst of the government’s plans to evaluate the performance of public Universities due to the blockades. Contrary to the score of Belgrade’s university, the government is punishing its professors by reducing their pay, and it’s adopting laws that hinder the quality of education.

According to the National Bank of Serbia, or the NBS, there was a year-on-year increase of around three percent in industrial production in April, followed by a similar surge in the manufacturing sector. The largest contributor to the development of the industrial sector was the production of petroleum derivatives, together with the increased production of motor vehicles, rubber and plastic products.

On the other hand, the NBS said that the mining sector saw a slight decline of around one percent year-on-year, while the energy sector recorded an annual five percent drop.

On Friday the 30th, the state statistical office published a report on the employment rate in the first quarter of twenty twenty-five. They said that there are almost three million employed people in Serbia, with the employment rate standing at around fifty percent. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people amounted to around 300,000, with the unemployment rate at around nine percent.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of employed people increased by around 15,000, while the number of unemployed people decreased by almost 40,000.

And to wrap up this episode, Novi Sad is hosting its 68th annual Zmaj’s children’s games festival starting from Tuesday the 2nd to Sunday the 15th. The children’s festival will feature a variety of activities, such as creative writing workshops, book sales, and children performances in drama, music, dance and writing.

For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Do daljnjeg, zbogom!