SERBIA: Dinars & more – 2nd Apr 2024

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 2nd of April twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

Last week, Besnik Bislimi, Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister, and Petar Petrovic, Serbia’s chief negotiator, participated in several meetings to discuss if and how the Serbian currency, the dinar, should be used in Kosovo. The meetings, however, did not yield much progress. Petrovic proposed that Kosovo allow the Serbian bank and Post Office to continue using dinars. Bislimi, however, argued that Serbians living in Kosovo should just exchange dinars for euros, as it is the new official currency. After the meeting, Bislimi suggested that Miroslav Lajcak, the EU envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, schedule additional meetings, as Bislimi and Petrovic did not come to an agreement.

Recall that in February, the euro became Kosovo’s official currency, making the dinar invalid for payment transactions. Despite this, many Serbians in Kosovo continue to use the dinar.

Speaking of Kosovo, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy organized a vote on Wednesday, the 27th on whether it should accept Kosovo’s application to join the Council of Europe. Out of forty-six member states, thirty-one voted in favor of Kosovo, four against — one was Serbia— and one abstained. President Vucic was against the results, highlighting the possibility of Serbia leaving the Council if Kosovo becomes a member. Recall that the country does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and considers it a Serbian province, thus disagreeing with its accession to international organizations.

On that note about Vucic, on Saturday the 30th, he proposed that Milos Vucevic, the minister of defense, be the prime minister of Serbia and lead the new government. Vucevic, who is also the head of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, is expected to form the government in the coming weeks. This formation comes after the difficult parliamentary elections which ultimately resulted in the SNS’s victory, awarding them 113 seats out of 250. Aside from the messy elections, Serbia is also experiencing tensions with Kosovo while balancing EU membership and ties with Russia. Vucic said that Vucevic was committed and had the expertise to be prime minister in such times.

In other news, on Tuesday the 26th, the Serbian version of the Amber Alert named Find Me sounded off for the first time after a two-year-old named Danka Ilic disappeared in the town of Bor, in the east of Serbia. As part of the alert, TV and radio stations interrupted their programs to alert the viewers about the missing child, providing information on her looks and the details of her disappearance. Such information also reached citizens through text messages and information tables on highways across the country. Currently, there is still no information on Danka’s whereabouts.

Igor Juric, the president of the Center for Missing and Abused Children, said that the center is working on improving the system so that it can reach even more people even faster.

Talking about reaching people, on Friday the 29th, students, professors and activists rallied in front of the Faculty of Philosophy in the city of Novi Sad to protest against a conservative campaign targeting Dinko Gruhonjic, one of their professors. The rally came after the events from the day before, when a group of people entered the faculty demanding Gruhonjic’s sacking, alleging he had made unacceptable comments glorifying a World War II Croatian fascist. The group proceeded to block the entrance, after which the dean decided to temporarily close the faculty for security.

At the counter-protest, Gruhonjic’s colleagues and students said that they were receiving threats for supporting him, and called for the hate campaign to end. Gruhonjic has also denied ever glorifying fascism and its figures.

Since we mentioned protests, the liberal Ecological Uprise movement scheduled one for the 6th of April, following the government’s decision to sell the former Army’s General Staff building to a company owned by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The liberal Green-Left Front party will also participate in the protest, condemning the Serbian government for giving the building away. They said that the edifice is both an important work of architecture and a symbol of Serbia’s suffering in the NATO bombing.

During the nineteen ninety-nine NATO bombing of Serbia, the former Army’s General Staff building suffered major destruction. It has symbolic value among the citizens, since it did not collapse after the war.

However, the consequences of the nineteen ninety-nine NATO bombing remain, as Danica Grujicic, the Minister of Health, said that the use of the depleted uranium missiles in the war led to an increase in patients suffering from cancer and various autoimmune diseases. She explained that the depleted uranium used in missiles damaged the genetic material of people who were exposed to it during and after the bombing — when Serbia recorded an increase in pathological pregnancies and fetus anomalies, male sterility and the number of women unable to have children.

On Tuesday the 26th, Jovana Joksimovic, the assistant Minister of Mining and Energy, spoke about Serbia’s energy plans at the seventh round of the series of dialogues on the implementation of the green energy transition. She pointed out that the government’s main goal is to increase the share of renewable energy sources in electricity production to around forty percent by twenty thirty. She also said that they aim to boost Serbia’s energy efficiency and reduce the emission of harmful gasses. On the same day, Elektroprivreda of Serbia, a state-owned power company, announced their plan to invest nearly six billion dollars in renewable energy projects, which will focus on the development of wind and solar power facilities.

On an unrelated note, the contractors of the Novi Sad-Subotica high-speed railroad project announced that regular railway traffic could begin as early as December. One of the engineers noted that eighty percent of the railway is already finished, adding that the construction process progressed faster than the contractors expected. The railroad will connect to the Novi Sad-Belgrade railway, allowing the passengers to go from Novi Sad to Subotica in around forty minutes, and from Belgrade to Subotica in an hour and ten minutes. This is significantly faster compared to the currently available means of transport on that route. Going by bus or car might take two to three hours. Novi Sad-Subotica railway is part of the Belgrade-Budapest railroad project, which aims to connect the Greek port of Piraeus with the EU.

Moving on to the economy, last week the State Statistics Office published January’s report on the salaries in Serbia. It stated that the average gross salary amounted to around 1,200 dollars, which is an increase of around nine percent in real terms compared to January of last year. The average net salary increased by the same amount, and was around 900 dollars.

In more economic news, on Tuesday the 26th, the Mastercard Institute of Economics published a report on consumer preferences in Europe related to spending money on experiences, particularly those related to tourism. The research shows that around sixty percent of Serbian respondents said that they plan to spend the same amount of money or more on experiences in twenty twenty-four compared to twenty twenty-three, referring to concerts, festivals, dining out, among others. Around forty percent said that these experiences are vital for creating lifelong memories. The report also showed that across age groups, gen Z leads the way in planning to spend more money on travel and cultural events.

And to close this edition, the famous Slovenian choir Perpetuum Jazzile will perform in Belgrade’s MTS arena on Thursday the 4th as part of their European tour. The concert will promote their latest studio album, Smells Like… and will feature song covers of some of the world’s biggest artists, such as David Bowie, and TOTO. Tickets cost between thirty-five and forty dollars and are available online. For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

And that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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