SERBIA: Faculty of Philosophy Raid & more – 2nd Sep 2025

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 2nd of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Tuesday the 26th, the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in the northern city of Novi Sad called the police on the students blocking the faculty in an attempt to break up the blockade that has been going on for nine months. Upon the police’s arrival, scuffles broke out between them and the students, with the police forcefully kicking students out.

After the clash, students called on the citizens for support, with a new protest already taking place on Wednesday the 27th in front of the faculty. For five consecutive nights, citizens kept showing up in front of the faculty to support the protest, with the students demanding the dean’s resignation. Around 160 professors from the Faculty of Philosophy also supported the students' protest and their demand, even launching a petition for the dean’s removal.

Recall that the faculty blockades began in early December last year, demanding accountability, and now extraordinary parliamentary elections, after the deadly canopy collapse of the railway station in Novi Sad.

However, news outlet NIN reported that several leading embassies of Western countries in Serbia are against the students’ demand for extraordinary parliamentary elections. While not disclosing which embassies have voiced their concern, NIN reported that their diplomats said that the current circumstances of oppression would result in more tensions.

Due to the unstable situation in Serbia, neither the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) nor the students might recognize the results of the elections, as the side that loses will accuse the other of election fraud — which the SNS has a history of.

Meanwhile, investigative journalism NGOs reported last week on the leaked conversation between the CEOs of the state-owned media company Telekom and Netherlands-based United Group about their plan to weaken the independent media in Serbia.

The US-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project NGO along with the Serbian NGO Krik reported that the two CEOs planned to remove employees who were defending editorial independence. Among those is Aleksandra Subotić, a chief executive of United Media - a subsidiary of United Group that owns several Serbian outlets, including the outlet N1. One of the CEOs mentioned in the leaked conversation that the Serbian president Vučić explicitly asked for Subotić’s removal, since she loudly defended independent journalism.

N1 remains one of the only free media outlets in Serbia, investigating corruption, giving voice to protesting students and defending media freedom.

Still, journalists and media employees keep experiencing violence from political activists and law enforcement agencies who support the ruling party. The international organization Reporters Without Borders reported on Thursday the 28th that there were more than thirty physical attacks on media staff in the past two months, urging the EU member states to act. They added that such a number exceeded all annual totals of physical attacks recorded in Serbia since twenty twenty.

Reporters Without Borders underlined that all the attacks were on journalists who were reporting the student protests live and those who wrote articles about the railway station tragedy and the protests.

In some news about bilateral relations, on Tuesday the 26th the Kosovo government opened a new bridge over the Ibar river which divides the South and North of the city of Mitrovica - an ethnically divided city with Serbians in the north and Albanians in the south. The bridge was not operational due to warnings of potential conflict between the two ethnic communities. The EU called on the Kosovo authorities to refrain from any uncoordinated actions, but the government stuck to its decision. Serbian officials in Kosovo posted on social media that the bridge opening directly undermines peace, criticizing Kosovo officials for dismissing objections.

Still in foreign relations, the state-owned postal operator Post of Serbia announced a temporary suspension of the processing and shipping of goods to the US. In a statement, they explained that their decisions came after the US administration decided to end duty-free de minimis treatment for postal items shipped from other nations. Aside from Serbia, many other countries’ postal services decided to suspend shipments to the US, including services from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Since we mentioned the US, the Serbian Minister of Energy announced on Wednesday the 27th that the US Department of Treasury decided to postpone their planned sanctions to the state-owned gas company NIS for the sixth time, now until the 26th of September.

Recall that in January, the US announced sanctions on NIS due to its majorly Russian ownership, but kept postponing the sanctions upon request of the Serbian government as it was working on acquiring the majority of the stakes.

The energy minister said that Serbia is working on buying NIS out completely, so that it can remove any Russian ownership and avoid sanctions, but that the discussion with the Russian side is slow moving. Until then, the minister said that Serbia will have to rely on the US postponing the sanctions.

In some news about the economy, the government adopted a regulation last week that will cap retailers’ profit margins at twenty percent. Mali, the finance minister, said that the ministry expects the cap to lower prices of up to 20,000 products across twenty-three categories, adding that this move aims to lower inflation. The regulation came into force on Monday the 1st of September, and will last for six months.

The announcement of such a measure comes amid the ruling party’s program to boost living standards, which the president pushes in the media. Aside from limiting margins, Vučić also pledged to lower loan rates for low-income borrowers, and provide discounts on electricity and heating for the lower-income families.

On Friday the 29th, the state’s statistical office reported that Serbia’s trade gap increased by around eight percent year-on-year in the first seven months of twenty twenty-five. They said that from January to July, exports amounted to around two trillion dinars, which is around twenty billion dollars - an increase of around ten percent compared to the same period last year.

Imports followed a similar trend, amounting to around three billion dinars, about thirty billion dollars, rising by ten percent year-on-year. The main export destinations were Germany, Italy and Bosnia, while the most exported products were electrical machinery, non-ferrous metals and ores.

When it comes to infrastructure, president Vučić announced last week that the high-speed railway between the northern cities of Novi Sad and Subotica will be put into operation by the end of December. This railway aims to link Belgrade, which is already connected to Novi Sad, with Budapest in Hungary through Subotica. Hungary’s Minister of Construction and Transport said that the Hungarian section of the high-speed line will likely be done this fall.

Tickets for the train will be cheaper than bus tickets or gas prices for the car, amounting to 600 dinars from Belgrade to Novi Sad, which is around six dollars, and about 1,200 dinars from Belgrade to Subotica, which is around twelve dollars. Travel times will also be shorter compared to other means of transport, with the Belgrade-Subotica ride being only an hour and ten minutes. Compared to buses and cars, the train ride is half as long.

In some cultural news, Belgrade and Novi Sad will host this year’s Spanish Meter, a Spanish-language film festival, from the 10th to the 17th of September. The main program includes films from Spain, Argentina, Chile, and many other Spanish-speaking countries. Tickets retail from 300 dinars, which is around three dollars, to around 600 dinars, about six dollars, and are available to purchase at the MTS Hall box office or online.

For more information about the Spanish Meter festival, 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!