SERBIA: Railway Station Collapses & more – 5th Nov 2024

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 5th of November twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Friday the 1st, the recently-renovated railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed. As of now, the incident has claimed fourteen lives, and left three individuals in critical condition. Due to the tragedy, the state declared Saturday the 2nd a day of mourning.

Citizens expressed shock over the building’s collapse, because, even though it was old, the railway station underwent a renovation very recently. Following its completion in July, Goran Vesic, the Construction minister, boasted about the station’s new look. However, after the incident, Vesic said that the station’s outdoor roofing was never renovated.

The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad said that they were looking into all the evidence. Together with the city’s Police Department, they conducted interrogations of a few dozen individuals, including minister Vesic and officials from the Ministry of Construction. The cause of the collapse, however, is still unknown.

Last week, we mentioned that Serbia adopted two draft laws. One declared Kosovo a special zone of social protection, aiming to provide Serbian citizens in Kosovo special social benefits from the Serbian authorities. The other one outlined Serbian jurisdiction over crimes committed in Kosovo by Serbians.

Kosovo’s PM Kurti said on Tuesday the 29th that these bills were a hostile action towards Kosovo’s constitution and sovereignty. He then called on the international community to condemn the new draft laws. The EU said that Serbia’s new legislation violated obligations the country undertook during the Belgrade-Pristina normalization dialogue. One EU spokesperson said that the past agreements Serbia has signed compelled the country not to interfere in Kosovo’s jurisdiction - something that the second draft law is violating. Both draft laws are currently awaiting parliamentary approval.

Speaking of the EU, its executive arm - the European Commission - published a progress report on Serbia on Wednesday the 30th of October and noted that the country did not make any progress in foreign and security policy. The report’s main concern was the lack of sanctions against Russia, as well as Serbia’s good relations with both Russia and China. Additionally, the report underlined the need for the Serbian parliament to revise parliamentary procedures, apply a code of conduct for MPs, and penalize infractions.

Still, the Commission noted certain progress in the fight against corruption, supporting the adoption of the new anti-corruption strategy. However, they highlighted the country’s lack of free media, urging it to implement new media laws, ensuring the independence of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media, which is an autonomous organization responsible for organizing television programs.

Since we mentioned Russia, the US Treasury Department sanctioned nearly 300 people and entities in Serbia and Montenegro on Wednesday the 30th for supplying Russia with advanced technology and equipment for its war machine. Among those sanctioned was Ventrade, a Serbian company from the northern city of Subotica, because the Department said it was exporting military-grade radios to Russian companies. The US underlined that Russian companies needed critical tools and technologies in order to wage a war against Ukraine, and added that they will continue to sanction people and entities who engage in such exports.

On Tuesday the 29th of October, the feminist cultural center Befem held a campaign titled City for Women in Belgrade's central Republic Square. At the event, the activists mapped the biggest problems that women face outside of their homes. Befem highlighted that one in five women do not feel safe at night, while one in three achieve safety by rarely going out. Additionally, most women said that they do not feel safe in public transport. Befem noted that such statistics show how public spaces reflect social inequalities, being unsafe and inaccessible for women. Aside from general safety, women mostly complained about the lack of well-kept, and clean public toilets, which do not provide sanitary items such as toilet paper and soap.

Talking about campaigns, on Thursday the 31st, activists in Belgrade organized a campaign called The Bridge Stays in protest of the government’s decision to demolish a World War II-era Old Sava bridge in the city center. They gathered in the New Belgrade municipality near the river Sava to prevent the bridge’s demolition by blocking workers and vehicles from approaching the bridge.

On Monday the 4th, citizens of Belgrade joined the protesters who had not left the scene since the demonstration started four days prior. Activists said that they didn’t support the bridge’s demolition, since the government intends to use that space for the Belgrade Waterfront complex, which the protest organizers consider a pet project of the authorities.

The idea of The Bridge Stays campaign is to have at least twenty people on the bridge at all times to prevent its demolition, with the organizers adding that so far, around 700 people volunteered to stand guard.

In some news on the economy, the State Statistical Office published on Thursday the 31st of October that Serbia’s external trade in goods amounted to around six trillion dinars as of September, which is around 55 billion dollars, marking an increase of nearly 4% compared to the same period last year. The worth of exported goods was around 2.5 trillion dinars, or around twenty-four billion dollars, which marks an increase of around 1%. The import rose by around 5%, amounting to around three trillion dinars, or around thirty billion dollars. This year, the import-export ratio stood at around 75%, which is a decrease from last year’s 80%.

In more statistics, a report by Ernst and Young Global Limited stated that there was a 15% increase since last year in foreign direct investment inflows, amounting to around 340 billion dinars, which is around three billion dollars. The report said that foreign investments in the mining sector saw the highest increase, with 25%, compared to 16% last year. Other industries which saw stable growth this year included the automotive industry and construction.

On Tuesday the 29th, Tomislav Momirovic, the Minister of Domestic and Foreign Trade, announced the decision to introduce restrictions on advertising and promotional activities of betting shops. Recall that last month, we reported on the state’s efforts to minimize gambling and its advertisement. Similarly, the government decided to prohibit betting shop advertising in print media, except on sports pages. It also banned the advertising on television, except during live sports broadcasts. Additionally, the minister announced that public figures will no longer be able to promote betting shops and gambling.

Momirovic said that the aim of these restrictions is to minimize flashing advertisements, billboards, and advertising on television promoting gambling to protect citizens, especially young people, from gambling addiction.

On an unrelated note, some Serbian students competed at the 16th International Knowledge Olympiad, which took place from Wednesday the 27th of October to Sunday the 3rd of November in Turkey. The students, who all attend the Mathematics Grammar School in Belgrade, competed in math, physics and chemistry, and secured six gold medals, with two of them reaching the maximum score in their disciplines.

And to wrap up this edition, on Saturday the 9th, Parni Valjak, one of the most famous Yugoslavian rock bands, will give a concert at Belgrade’s MTS Hall. Attendees will be able to hear some of their classic tracks, such as Page from a Diary, Autumn Inside Me, and Flags, but Parni Valjak will also be debuting their new singles titled When It Gets Dark and My Head, My Rules. Tickets range from 2,000 dinars, which is around nineteen dollars, to 6,500 dinars, or around sixty dollars. For more information, 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!