SERBIA: A Presidential Pardon & more – 12th Aug 2025

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 12th of August twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

Last week, a group of UN human rights experts called on the Serbian government to stop all forms of retaliation and intimidation against protesters. They expressed concern over the regime’s intensifying crackdown on students, professors, human rights defenders, civil society actors and citizens.

The student-led protests began in early December of twenty twenty-four, after the fatal canopy collapse tragedy in the northern city of Novi Sad. However, even though they were peaceful, the government responded with repression. Since December, Serbia has seen numerous smear campaigns against students, doxxing, illegal arrests, and physical attacks.

The human rights experts said that the student-led protests are a nationwide demand for accountability, transparency, justice, and investment in education.

Despite the calls from the UN experts for the Serbian government to stop the violence against students, President Vucic decided to give a presidential pardon to yet another assailant - this time, for Milica Stojanovic, a woman who ran over a student during a protest, nearly killing her. The attack took place in January in Belgrade, when Stojanovic sped up into the crowd in order to break up the mass.

Even though she was initially accused of attempted murder, the Higher Prosecution Office later amended the indictment to a serious offence against public safety. Vucic, however, said that Stojanovic did not deserve the punishment, adding that the courts and prosecutors are not just, prompting him to use his presidential pardon.

Recall that this is the second pardon Vucic has used amid the ongoing student-led protests, with the first one targeting four ruling party supporters who broke a student's jaw - an act which Vucic labeled as heroic.

On the other hand, the daily news outlet Danas reported that early parliamentary elections could take place by the end of the year, noting that they could be held on the 28th of December. On Friday the 8th, Vucic confirmed that there will be parliamentary elections ahead of the legal deadline, which is in twenty twenty-seven, but refused to specify when.

Student-led protests have challenged the legitimacy of the government over issues related to corruption and public safety, thus calling for early parliamentary elections. Students from the whole country are working on a list to be represented in the vote.

Vucic is not the only president making news this week, as Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Central Election Commission, or CEC, decided to remove Milorad Dodik from his post as president of Bosnia’s Serbian entity, the Republic of Srpska. This decision comes a week after Dodik’s indictment for contradicting the rulings of Bosnia’s High Representative, with Bosnia’s Court banning him from holding political office for six years and sentencing him to a year in prison. The CEC said that it will have to organize early elections to ensure that the Serbian entity has a president. He received support from Serbian officials, with President Vucic inviting him to Serbia for advice and help.

The ruling comes nearly three decades after the Dayton Peace Agreement ended the bloody civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, unifying Serbians and Bosniaks in one country with two entities.

Meanwhile, on Friday the 8th, the EU announced that Serbia failed to align itself with two out of three foreign policy decisions, making it the only candidate country that didn’t comply with all three of them. Serbia had aligned itself with the EU's decision to expand the list of persons, entities or bodies subject to restrictive measures due to activities undermining stability and political transition in Sudan. However, the country did not comply with two other decisions, one regarding Libya, and the other concerning measures to combat terrorism.

Serbia is still the only candidate country to refuse to align with all of the EU’s foreign policy decisions, which significantly impacts its status, as one of the prerequisites for joining the EU is a full foreign policy alignment.

Analysts said that Serbia's compliance level reached sixty percent in twenty twenty-four.

Speaking of the EU, on Wednesday the 6th, the Union signed a financing agreement with Serbia worth thirty-eight billion dinars (which is around 400 million dollars) to support environmental protection and energy development projects. Serbia’s state secretary at the Ministry of European Integration said that the funds will be directed toward sustainable waste management, wastewater infrastructure improvements and energy efficiency upgrades in public buildings and households.

An EU delegation to Serbia said that this agreement shows the Union’s long-term commitment to Serbia’s EU accession path.

Going back to foreign relations for a second, on Tuesday the 5th, news portals Balkan Insight Research Network, or BIRN, and Haaretz published the results of their investigation into the arms and weapons exports to Israel. They reported that in the first half of twenty twenty-five, Serbia exported 6.5 billion dinars, which is around sixty-five million dollars, worth of ammunition, surpassing the total exports from the entire previous year, which amounted to around 5.6 billion dinars (560 million dollars). BIRN and Haaretz said that the state-owned company Jugoimport and five other private firms engaged in arms exports to Israel the most, with Edepro and Romax Trade exporting ammunition directly to Israeli security firms which work closely with the Israeli Defence Forces.

The two outlets said that the government rejected their freedom of information requests because it said the data was highly confidential. So they ended up getting the information through the customs data.

In some news about the economy, the Ministry of Finance announced last week that in the first half of twenty twenty-five, Serbia’s state budget went into a deficit by around twenty billion dinars (which is about 180 million dollars). Compared to the same period last year, the fiscal situation worsened, since the state budget then recorded a surplus of around thirty billion dinars (about 300 million dollars). The ministry noted that the government is spending funds faster than the revenue is growing, mostly when it comes to infrastructure costs.

While on the topic of funds, President Vucic recently announced a new program of assistance for citizens that will aim to limit retail margins in order to reduce prices. In our previous episode, we mentioned that the prices in the country have increased so much that they are nearly identical to the EU average prices. Vucic said that such an economic situation is unfavorable for Serbian citizens, as the workers’ wages are nowhere near the European levels. He also said that lowering the retail margins would bring prices in Serbia down by more than twenty percent, with the main focus being groceries like bread, oil, and flour.

In some cultural news, from Thursday the 14th and until Monday the 18th, the southern city of Nis will host its annual jazz festival Nisville. It will feature more than a thousand artists on twenty different stages. Despite being a jazz festival, Nisville will hold artists from other genres too, including hip hop, rock and reggae. Ticket prices start at 1,000 dinars, which is around ten dollars.

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

Speaking of festivals, the organizers of the largest festival in Serbia EXIT announced on Wednesday the 6th that they will be launching a crowdfunding campaign, named Save EXIT Freedom. The decision comes after the government withdrew its funding for the festival due to EXIT’s support for the student-led protests. The organizers underlined that they had to resort to crowdfunding to ensure the immediate stability of the festival organization and protect over a hundred jobs.

Despite EXIT bringing in billions of dinars to the Serbian economy, the government is not budging from its decision to quit funding the festival. Recall that this is the reason why EXIT organizers said that the festival will be moving to a different country.

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

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Do daljnjeg, zbogom!