SERBIA: Novi Sad Commemoration & more – 4th Nov 2025

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 4th of November twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Saturday the 1st, tens of thousands of people gathered in the northern city of Novi Sad to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the canopy collapse tragedy, which took sixteen lives. Ahead of the gathering, students from all over the country embarked on several-day-long walks, while some cycled to Novi Sad, to show the resilience of their year-long anti-corruption protests. During the ceremony in front of Novi Sad’s railway station, where the tragedy happened, citizens held a vigil, after which they released sixteen white doves - one for each of the victims.

Recall that on the 1st of November in twenty twenty-four, the railway station’s canopy fatally collapsed, only a couple of months after its renovation. Ever since, students and other citizens have been protesting for accountability and the resolution of the case, blaming the current government’s corruption for the incident and demanding early elections.

emony in Novi Sad, at exactly: 11:52

In Belgrade, huge crowds gathered in support of Hrka, while the residents of the pro-government camp, nicknamed Caciland, set up in front of the parliament, threw chairs and pyrotechnics at them. Soon the riot police showed up in defense of the pro-government campers, arresting prominent activists like Vladimir Stimac, a former player of the national basketball team.

Students urged people to stay away from the pro-government camp to avoid getting hurt or escalating the situation further.

Prior to the clashes in Belgrade, President Vucic announced that the early parliamentary elections would likely be held. Calling early elections is one of the students’ demands for the end of faculty blockades and protests, as their other demands regarding the canopy collapse tragedy case remained disregarded and unmet. Vucic did not specify when the extraordinary elections could take place, but said that he is ready to fulfill the students’ demand.

The lack of resolution regarding the Novi Sad tragedy case uncovered the poor state of the rule of law in Serbia. On Tuesday the 28th of October, the Washington-based independent organization World Justice Project, or WJP, published its twenty twenty-five Rule of Law Index, in which Serbia showed terrible results.

Out of 142 countries, the WJP ranked Serbia at the 130th place for constraints on government powers, 101st for the absence of corruption, 97th for open government, and 71st for fundamental rights. Globally, the highest-ranking countries on the list were Denmark, Norway and Finland, while the worst was Venezuela.

Another well-known issue in the current Serbian climate is media darkness. Last week, prosecutors in Belgrade requested that the Crime and Corruption Research Network, or KRIK, hand over the transcript of a phone call from two months ago between two prominent figures in the media space who detailed their plan to buy out independent media in Serbia. Prosecutors in Belgrade are threatening KRIK with a fine if they do not hand over the transcript, but KRIK refuses to. They noted that the prosecutor’s real goal is to find the source of the phone call recording, and not to investigate possible criminal offenses stemming from the conversation.

Speaking of the media, on Friday the 31st, the international NGO Reporters Without Borders published their annual Predators of Media Freedom list. The NGO details that their list features figures and organizations that are known for silencing independent media voices and contributing to media darkness. Some of the thirty-four press freedom predators that Reporters Without Borders included in its list were President Vucic, Elon Musk, and the Israeli Defense Forces. Vucic appeared on the list for his intense crackdown on journalists in Serbia in the midst of protests challenging his rule.

Just a reminder that our YouTube Channel is still up because we are fighting the government’s censorship. They want to take us down because we are dangerous. But will keep fighting for media freedom.

On that note about censorship, the Swedish government announced that they are halting some of its aid meant for Serbia's state authorities due to corruption, and rule of law and media freedom failures. The Swedish minister for foreign trade said in a press release on Monday the 3rd that Sweden does not want to fund a country in which basic human rights are constantly violated. The Serbian foreign ministry snapped back and said that the government didn’t accept the criticism because it had a lecturing tone.

The Swedish funding program with the Western Balkans and Turkey has been going on since twenty twenty-one and will end in twenty twenty-seven, and aims to strengthen local civil society. The project gave a total of around three million dollars to the Serbian government.

Since we mentioned recordings earlier, news outlet Insider reported last week that the Security Information Agency BIA wiretapped the offices of the opposition party Free Citizens Movement, or PSG, in Novi Sad. Insider said that the BIA had been listening to the PSG offices for nearly four months - from January to mid-March, and then distributed some conversations to pro-government media channels, which aired them on national television days before the mass protest in Belgrade on the 15th of March.

Insider reported that Belgrade’s Higher Court president ordered the BIA to wiretap the PSG offices, making its surveillance completely legal. However, the members of PSG are calling for the Higher Court president and the BIA to be held accountable for abusing the security apparatus, noting that the BIA had no reason to go after them, aside from the party’s vocal support of students.

In other news, the US has reminded Serbia in an announcement that it wants the Russian stake in the Serbian state-owned gas company NIS to either be sold or nationalized in order to lift the sanctions. As we have reported in previous shows, the US imposed sanctions on NIS in early October due to Russia’s majority ownership, calling for NIS to remove Russian stakes to get the sanctions lifted.

Commenting on the recent news about the US’ demand for the complete removal of Russian ownership, Vucic said that the US had offered to delay sanctions on NIS if Serbia agreed to nationalize the company’s assets.

Not only is Vucic now considering removing Russia from NIS’s ownership completely, a move which he previously deemed ridiculous due to good relations, now he is giving a sales pitch to the EU for Serbian arms, hinting that they should go to Ukraine. Vucic said that Serbia was militarily neutral and fair towards both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war. However, he offered the EU a contract for Serbia’s arms, saying that they can take everything, as the country’s warehouses are full. Vucic noted that Serbia wants to be a security contributor while maintaining its neutrality, suggesting that the EU should then distribute the arms from Serbia to Ukraine.

Despite positioning itself as neutral, the Serbian government has declined to impose sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty-two, and has kept close ties to Russia and its officials. Those close ties significantly hindered Serbia’s path to join the EU.

Following their visit to Serbia last week, an International Monetary Fund, or IMF, mission reported that Serbia's money supply increase is expected to slow down in twenty twenty-six to around two percent, which they said reflects weaker public investment, low foreign direct investment, and weaker consumption. The energy sector is a big player in the Serbian economy, and the IMF underlined that the NIS sanctions have affected more than just gas supplies. They added that if the Serbian government does not resolve NIS’s majorly Russian ownership, the money supply will plummet fast.

Finally, some cultural news, as several Serbian cities will host the 21st annual Free Zone Film Festival from the 5th to the 10th of November. The festival will feature thirty-seven films from twenty different countries. Tickets to watch a film cost between 300 dinars, around three dollars, and 500 dinars, around five dollars.

For more information about the Free Zone Film Festival, check out the link in the show notes!

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

We have some new t-shirts coming out soon, just in time for Christmas! Stay tuned!

Vidimo se!