SERBIA: A Silent Vigil & more – 6th Jan 2026

Dobar dan from Oakley! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 6th of January twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in the northern city of Novi Sad announced on Monday the 29th that it has appealed the recent ruling acquitting six officials in the case of the canopy collapse tragedy. Last week we mentioned that the court of Novi Sad ruled that there was not enough evidence to put the six defendants on trial — among them were the construction minister and officials from the Serbian Railways, whom the citizens believe carry the main responsibility for the tragedy.

The Prosecutor’s Office argued that the court’s ruling was flawed, naming instances of contradiction, lack of proper explanation of the connections between the six defendants and the tragedy, and the court’s denial that any criminal actions had caused the tragedy.

Speaking of the canopy collapse tragedy, on Thursday the 1st students and citizens organized a silent vigil for the victims in front of Novi Sad’s railway station, exactly fourteen months after the tragedy. During the silence, attendees held signs reading sixteen victims, fourteen months, zero responsible, alongside the names of the victims. Students and assembly representatives said in a speech that they will not stop protesting until those responsible for the tragedy are brought to justice.

Going back to the prosecutors, Vesna Malisic, the editor-in-chief at the independent news outlet Radar, wrote a piece in Serbian about the publication's word of the year - TOK, which in Serbian is an acronym for Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime, but also a word for flow. Malisic described the different meanings of TOK and what the word symbolized in twenty twenty-five, with some pointing to a lawful, orderly state, while others emphasized change and a break from political impunity.

She described twenty twenty-five as a year of enthusiasm and solidarity, but also a year of repression and police brutality, adding that despite all of it, the protests adapted instead of dying down. Malisic added that since the protests began, there is no going back, forcing the country to flow into the next chapter which should be accountability and justice.

Read the full piece with the link in the show notes.

On Sunday the 4th, Dragan Djilas, the head of the opposition Freedom and Justice Party, said that the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto is preparing a lawsuit against Serbia. Djilas explained that the legal action comes from the cancellation of the lithium mining project in the western Jadar Valley. He cited reliable sources, and said that Rio Tinto would seek damages of up to 175 billion dinars, which is nearly two billion dollars. Djilas attributed this potential lawsuit to the entitlement of the ruling party and President Vucic, both of whom have made various promises to Rio Tinto without consulting anyone.

Recall that environmental experts in Serbia warned that Rio Tinto’s lithium mining project could severely and irreversibly pollute water, air and land near the site, causing mass protests against the Jadar project. Due to the backlash, Rio Tinto had to pause its work indefinitely.

Since we mentioned protests, on Tuesday the 30th, Serbian farmers in the central city of Kraljevo gave away free milk to citizens in an act of rebellion against the announced reduction of milk purchase prices to twenty dinars per liter, around eighty US cents per gallon. Milorad Majstorovic, the head of Serbia’s milk association, said that their milk giveaway aimed to draw the attention of the authorities to prevent imports of milk from the EU and to protect the domestic market.

The agriculture minister dismissed the farmers’ concerns and said that Serbia is dealing with a milk surplus, noting that this was the reason why the prices would go down. Majstorovic, however, said that the surplus comes from Serbia importing milk despite having enough to meet its citizens' needs, and warned that lowering the purchase price could lead farmers to opt out of milk production because it is not profitable.

In energy news, on Wednesday the 31st, the Serbian energy minister announced that the US has granted Serbia’s state-owned gas company NIS a temporary sanctions waiver. NIS has been under US sanctions since October, forcing the shutdown of its sole oil refinery, which supplies more than eighty percent of Serbian households with gas.

The energy minister added that the US granted NIS an operational license, which will be valid until the 23rd of January, and will allow the sole refinery to continue its operations for a while. The minister added that the US likely did this to prevent fuel shortages in Serbia during winter, while also urging the country to resolve the issue of Russian ownership, which is the reason why Serbia is under sanctions.

Speaking of the US, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in the central city of Zrenjanin rejected an investigation into the US’ accusations about forced work in the city’s China-owned Linglong tire factory. A few weeks ago, we reported that the US banned imports from Linglong in Serbia due to human rights concerns, citing forced labor, abusive living and working conditions, as well as underpaying or not paying the workers at all.

Zrenjanin’s prosecutors' office said that no one had presented any evidence since the US made the accusations, adding that that is the reason behind their lack of concern.

Human rights violations at Linglong are not news to Serbia, as both the US and the UN have raised concerns about it in the past, but President Vucic keeps branding these concerns as political attacks.

On that note about human rights violations, Bojan Lazić, the executive director of the LGBTQ+ oriented Let it be Known organization, said that Serbia recorded over a hundred incidents against the LGBTQ+ community in twenty twenty-five alone. He said that twenty twenty-five had the highest number of assaults and targeted violence motivated by homophobia and transphobia in the past ten years.

Lazic said that the government also made zero progress in twenty twenty-five regarding the rights and the proposed laws to protect this group. He added that the demands of the LGBTQ+ community have stayed the same - the adoption of the Law on Gender Identity and the Law on Same-Sex Unions.

The right to freedom of expression was also violated last year, as an army of trolls from the ruling regime complained about our YouTube channel until it was taken down. However, it is back up, so check it out!

In some news about the economy, the National Bank of Serbia, or NBS, said that inflation at the end of December is within the target range, standing at around three percent year-on-year. Aside from the NBS, the State Statistical Office said that GDP grew by two percent overall in twenty twenty-five compared to twenty twenty-four.

Meanwhile, Serbia introduced two carbon emissions-related taxes on Thursday the 1st - the national carbon tax and the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (or CBAM). The first tax puts a levy of around five hundred dinars (five dollars) per tonne of carbon emissions. The CBAM tax affects carbon-intensive products imported into the EU, such as aluminium, iron, steel, and cement, and is calculated based on the average price of emission allowances under the EU’s system.

Aside from taxing carbon emissions, Serbia is focusing on the environment by building a large solar power plant called Nocaj 1 in the outskirts of the northern city of Sremska Mitrovica. The power plant will have a ninety-megawatt capacity, which is enough to cover the needs of up to 40,000 households. The same constructors are also planning on building Nocaj 2. Together, the two power plants will have the capacity of 270 megawatts, which could supply up to 120,000 households.

The introduction of large solar power plants marks a step towards cleaner energy for Serbia, as well as the diversification of its energy sources.

Wrapping up this week’s episode with some sports news, Belgrade will host the 37th annual men’s European Water Polo Championship from the 10th to the 25th of January. Tickets range from 700 dinars (seven dollars) to 3,000 dinars (thirty dollars) and are available for sale online.

For more information about the men’s European Water Polo Championship, check out the link in the show notes!

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

We want to start this new year on the right foot, so send us some feedback to improve our shows!

Vidimo se!