Serbia Against Violence Electoral List Conference & more – 21st Nov 2023

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 21st of November twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

Ahead of the elections scheduled for the 17th of December, the Serbia Against Violence electoral list held its first convention on Thursday, the 16th in Belgrade, during which the election candidates presented their parties and policies. The Serbia Against Violence list comprises opposition parties that decided to unite against the ruling Serbian Progressive Party and will participate in the elections as a joint coalition.

Vladimir Obradovic, the Belgrade mayor candidate, urged citizens to unite and support the coalition in the elections. Milos Pavlovic, a candidate for councilor in the Belgrade Assembly and vice-president of the National Movement of Serbia, said that the priority of their electoral list is to root out corruption. He pointed out that sixty percent of the Serbian budget goes to funding the salaries of servants from the Serbian Progressive Party, which he deemed unacceptable. Other politicians emphasized the two mass shootings that occurred in May, and condemned the government for allowing the promotion of violence in the media, which they say influenced the attackers.

More sectors are also dissatisfied with the current state of affairs in the country, and they are taking to the streets. Farmers’ strikes started last week in Novi Sad when protesters used tractors to block the roads to pressure authorities to meet their demands. The farmers called on authorities to regulate the market for agricultural products, asking for subsidies amounting to 300 dollars per hectare of arable land and an allocation of 100 liters of duty-free diesel fuel. Post office workers around the country have also been protesting and striking, demanding that the government increase their workforce and raise their salaries by at least thirty percent. Despite the Ministry of Telecommunications urging the post office workers to go back to work, the Serbian Military Union has come out in support of the protest, encouraging the workers not to call off the strike.

Since we mentioned the government…

Their representatives have accepted the EU's invitation to resume talks within the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue in Brussels that will focus on the statute's text for the Association of Serbian Municipalities in the predominantly Serbian north of Kosovo. Vucic commented on the upcoming meeting and said that Serbia stands for de-escalation, peace, and stability, adding that he is always ready for dialogue and respecting signed agreements. Despite this, Vucic said he wouldn’t sign any agreements until Kosovo agreed to form the Association of Serbian Municipalities. Fortunately, however, the EU has since announced a proposal for establishing the Community of Serbian Municipalities, adding that both Serbia and Kosovo expressed readiness to accept it.

The proposal for forming the Association of Serbian Municipalities has been around since the Brussels Agreement of twenty thirteen, which both Kosovo and Serbia signed. The Association would be a self-governing association of municipalities with a majority population of Serbians from Kosovo.

While on the topic of Kosovo…

On Friday, the 17th, the European Commission proposed to the European Parliament the abolition of visas for all citizens in Kosovo who have a Serbian passport issued by the Serbian Internal Affairs Ministry Coordination Directorate.

In other political news…

On Thursday, the 16th, the US State and Treasury Departments imposed sanctions on Misa Vacic, leader of the Serbian Right party, and Nenad Popovic, an ally of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, for their close association with Russian authorities. Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, accused Vacic and Popovic of spreading Russia’s influence in the Balkans, and participating in corrupt activities. The Department has also sanctioned around twelve companies for participating in foreign activities of the Russian government which the department labeled as harmful to the region. All of these companies are connected to Popovic.

On Friday the 17th, several university professors sent a letter addressed to the Kosovar government, but also to foreign ministries of France and Germany, demanding that the monument dedicated to Serbian soldiers who died during the Balkan Wars be put back in its original place. The monument originally resided in the Orthodox cemetery in Pristina, at the burial ground of Serbian soldiers who died during the First World War. However, a few weeks ago, at the initiative of the French and German embassies in Pristina, the cemetery moved the monument in order to place a memorial plaque dedicated to the French soldiers killed in Kosovo. The letter, which contained signatures of several professors in the fields of genetics and cultural heritage, demanded that the monument be placed in its original spot, as well as an apology to all Serbian citizens. The French embassy has since announced that it will consider relocating the monument to its original place.

Since we mentioned history…

Last week Serbian archeologists made a new discovery in Viminacium, an ancient Roman city located near the Serbian town of Kostolac that was destroyed in the sixth century. On the porch of a large home on a main street of the town, they found an ancient Roman wind chime called tintinnabulum, which was used to frighten the evil spirits and ward off the curse of the evil eye, which was greatly feared in antiquity. Archeologists said that Romans usually hung these wind chimes near the doorways of houses and shops for protection, believing that the noise that the wind chime produced and its peculiar appearance would scare off evil spirits.

In some news on energy…

On Wednesday, the 16th, Serbia and Azerbaijan signed a gas deal that will help Serbia diversify supplies and strengthen its position as a transit country for gas suppliers. Under the agreement, Azerbaijan will deliver around 400 million cubic meters of gas per year to Serbia from twenty twenty-four. The Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy and her Azerbaijani counterpart signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will strengthen relations between the countries in the energy field.

Currently, Serbia’s biggest gas supplier is Russia’s energy giant Gazprom. Ever since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Serbia has stalled imposing sanctions on Russia, with the main reason being its dependency on the nation’s gas.

For music and film fans…

The Serbian Symphony Orchestra will perform a series of two film-music concerts titled Hollywood in Serbia in light of the 100 years since the screening of the first Hollywood movie in Serbia, which was The Life and Deeds of the Immortal Leader Karadjordje. The concerts will take place in Belgrade on the 25th at 8 PM and in Novi Sad on the 27th at 10 PM. The orchestra will perform the soundtracks of world-famous films, such as Titanic, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones, and many more. For ticket information, check out the links in the show notes.

Now, to close this edition, some health updates.

Last week, the Institute for Public Health confirmed around 3,600 COVID-19 cases, with zero deaths. Compared to the previous week, the number of confirmed cases has decreased by around a hundred.

And that’s it for this week! Ads are the villains in podcasts, be the hero and save the audience from listening to a mediocre ad about a beverage you won’t try. So go ahead and tell your friends about us!

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Do daljnjeg, zbogom!