SERBIA: Indictment Overturned Again & more – 24th Feb 2026

Dobar dan from Oakley! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 24th of February twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

After overturning an indictment confirmation in the canopy collapse case once in early February, Belgrade’s Court of Appeal cancelled the indictment confirmation again on Thursday the 19th on the basis that an unauthorized prosecutor filed the indictment.

Recall that the prosecutors issued the indictment against three individuals who they believe had reopened the railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad despite knowing that the renovations were not finished and that it was unsafe.

The court’s decision to overturn the indictment confirmation will significantly slow the already stagnant investigation into the twenty twenty-four canopy collapse tragedy, which killed sixteen people.

An outbreak of violence occurred in Belgrade on Tuesday the 17th at a protest against police brutality as the police began tackling and arresting the demonstrators. The students in Belgrade, who had organized the protest, said that their aim was to show support for their peers in Novi Sad. Recall that last week, we reported on the violence at the Novi Sad protest against corruption, where ruling party supporters attacked students and activists.

As the protest was ending on Tuesday, three Belgrade faculties said on their Instagram accounts that more than a dozen of their students had been arrested and warned that the police were around the university and student dormitories.

Speaking of protests, a group of judges, prosecutors, lawyers and citizens held the March for Justice on Saturday the 21st, in the wake of the recent adoption of judicial laws limiting the freedom of courts and the prosecution service. In previous episodes, we reported that the parliament had recently passed laws without a public debate, increasing the government’s influence in courts and limiting judicial independence.

At the protest, judges and prosecutors highlighted that the ruling party is tightening its grip on the judiciary, aiming to get rid of those who dare hold them accountable. The EU also criticized Serbia for adopting the laws, urging the country to suspend them and even threatening to halt accession talks.

On that note about EU accession, President Vucic discussed Serbia’s position on its path to the EU last week in an interview with the German newspaper FAZ and said that he would even accept membership without veto rights. Political experts said that Vucic is willing to pass on the opportunity to gain veto powers in the EU because it is a common obstacle to the accession process.

Despite Vucic’s seeming eagerness to join the EU, his actions prove otherwise: from his throwing insults at MEPs to the adoption of the judicial laws that the EU disapproved of. Also, no one has offered Vucic a deal to join the bloc without veto powers, with political analysts saying that this is an effort to boost Vucic’s image in the EU.

Next up, in his essay written in Serbian called Our regime is an ideal client for neo-colonizers, lecturer and writer Lazar Dzamic speaks about the allure of Serbian politics and economy to predatory investors. Dzamic speaks about the incompetence of the regime to save its own country from tragedy, citing the canopy collapse and protest repression as some of the many forms of state violence. He goes on to criticize officials, labeling them as corrupt and apathetic, succumbing to giants who offer blatant exploitation in exchange for coins.

His essay reflects on the political trends in Serbia that spin the minds of citizens into moral indifference while allowing the state to use the land as it pleases.

Check out the full piece with the link in the show notes.

In an update to a story from a previous show… Last month, we reported on the truck drivers’ border-crossing blockade due to the EU’s entry laws. Last week, the EU rejected all the solutions the truckers proposed.

Recall that truck drivers from several non-EU Balkan countries complained about the EU limiting their stay in foreign countries to ninety days in a 180-day period. They blocked border crossings across the Balkans in protest and proposed that the EU make an exception to this rule for them.

The president of the International Transport of Serbia association said that the EU has no intention of changing any rules to benefit truck drivers from non-EU countries, adding that truck drivers intend to protest again.

Since we mentioned foreign countries, the US Overseas Security Advisory Council, or OSAC, published a report, saying that there is a high security risk in Serbia, advising its citizens to avoid certain areas and events. The OSAC stated several concerns in their report, but highlighted organized crime, drug trafficking and hooliganism. It also said that Serbian investigative media reported that notorious criminal groups in Serbia have ties to government officials. Police violence also made an appearance in the OSAC’s report, noting that even peaceful protests turn violent in Serbia, urging US citizens to stay away from them.

Not only are foreigners turned away from visiting certain places in Serbia, but they are also turning away from investing. The Central Bank of Serbia, or the NBS, said that net foreign direct investment in Serbia dropped by more than fifty percent in twenty twenty-five compared to twenty twenty-four. They said that the largest share of investments was seen in the manufacturing industry, followed by construction.

The NBS said that investors are not interested in Serbia anymore due to ongoing protests; however, business representatives have pointed to issues relating to the system itself, such as inconsistent regulations and weak rule of law.

Going back to news from the US for a second, its Office of Foreign Assets Control extended the operating licence for the Serbian state-owned energy company NIS until the 20th of March. The US gave NIS until the 24th of March to negotiate the sale of Russian stakes, as it is currently in talks with the Hungarian energy company MOL and the United Arab Emirates company ADNOC, which wish to buy the stakes.

Sanctions on NIS began in October because of its major Russian ownership, with the US demanding that NIS remove Russia from the picture entirely.

On the economic front, the State statistics office said on Thursday the 19th that the year-on-year inflation in January amounted to 2.5 percent, which is slightly lower than in December. They said that food and non-alcoholic beverages, which have the greatest impact on the consumer basket, dropped in price by one percent in January compared to last year, while housing, water and electricity jumped by nine percent year-on-year.

Another sector where prices have gone up significantly is housing. The Serbian real estate marketplace 4walls reported that in Belgrade, the average apartment price comes out at around 4,000 dollars per square meter— a seven percent increase compared to the same period last year. Rent has gone up as well, with 4walls noting that renting a one-bedroom flat in Belgrade would cost the tenant about 450 dollars a month, which is an increase of around three percent year-on-year. 4walls also said that out of nearly 10,000 apartment listings on their portal, less than ten percent are considered affordable.

Since the average salary in Serbia is around a thousand dollars per month, buying real estate is a serious struggle for citizens.

To wrap up the final episode of the Rorshok Serbia Update, Belgrade will host the European Film Festival from Thursday the 26th to Monday the 2nd at the Yugoslav Film Archive. The festival will feature films nominated for the EU Film Academy Audience Award twenty twenty-six, as well as panel discussions about the potential EU support for Serbian films. All screenings will be free of charge.

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

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

This is our last goodbye. We are very sad that this project has to come to an end. Thank you so much for your support for our experiment. We put so much effort into making these updates, so we hope you have connected with them and with us. We are really grateful to each one of you who has stuck with us until the end.

Again, thank you so much for being on the other side.

You can still contact us at info@rorshok.com. Who knows, we might get the Serbia update running again someday.

Vidimo se!