SERBIA: Re-run Elections & more – 9th Apr 2024

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 9th of April twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Wednesday the 3rd, the parliamentary collegium organized negotiations between the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, and the opposition on conditions and dates for the new local elections and polls in Belgrade. During the session, the opposition parties requested that Belgrade’s municipal elections be rerun on the same day as local elections in around sixty local municipalities.

Recall that in the previous elections, the SNS bussed voters from foreign countries to vote as if they were from Serbia, which is fraud. The opposition suspected that they might do the same for the upcoming elections, where they would bus the voters that have already voted in one municipality, to vote again in Belgrade. The opposition then said that such a plan would be difficult to carry out if both Belgrade elections and local elections in different municipalities are held on the same day, because then they would not have the time to travel between places.

The SNS, however, turned down the request, and added that it would mean amending the law on local elections, which stipulates that the call for elections must be made no earlier than 120 days, and no later than forty-five days before the end of the councilor's mandate. They then scheduled the Belgrade polls for the 2nd of June, which is the latest it can be. The SNS did not set a date for the local elections but said that the earliest they can be is the 9th of June.

Previous local and Belgrade elections resulted in no majority, after which the SNS called for a rerun.

In other news, the talks regarding Kosovo’s decision to ban the use of the Serbian dinar yielded no results —again. Recall that two weeks ago, Besnik Bislimi, Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister, and Petar Petkovic, Serbia’s chief negotiator, participated in several meetings to talk about this, but failed to reach an agreement on the plan of action. On Thursday the 4th, Bislimi and Petkovic met once again, and presented their proposals, with Petkovic arguing that Serbian banks should continue operating in dinars, and Bislimi rejecting that idea. Petkovic went on to say that Kosovo lacks the political will to compromise over the use of the Serbian dinar, as they are adamant about its ban on their territory. Miroslav Lajcak, the EU’s Special Representative for the dialogue, said that there will be more meetings.

While on the topic of Kosovo, its second census since its declaration of independence from Serbia in two thousand eight started on Friday the 5th. However, Serbians living in Kosovo refuse to take part, with Serbian parties calling for a boycott. One of them, the Serbian List, called the upcoming census unnecessary, as they consider that Kosovo is not an independent country so it doesn’t need its own census.

That Friday, Kurti held a meeting with mayors and told them that, aside from registering the citizens, the census would include a separate registration of the Kosovo diaspora and the property damaged during the nineteen ninety-nine war against Serbia. The number of Kosovo’s diaspora is estimated to be roughly half a million people, and this will be the first time they have tried registering it.

Last week we mentioned the disappearance of Danka Ilic, a two-year-old who went missing near the town of Bor in eastern Serbia. On Thursday the 4th, two men were arrested after confessing to her murder, and president Vucic announced her death on TV. However, the searches for the body are still ongoing.

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network’s monitoring of digital rights violations last week showed that data leaking from the investigation, speculation, accusations, and insults of parents continued even after the confirmation of Danka’s death. Aside from publishing footage of police searches for Danka’s body, tabloids published unverified and inaccurate information regarding the case, further fueling clickbait headlines and sensationalized narratives on social media. Since then, the Ministry of Interior issued a statement saying that spreading inaccurate information about an ongoing case is a crime.

After the two men confessed to the murder of Danka Ilic, president Vucic announced that he would ask the Government to consider reintroducing the death penalty for similar crimes. He said that the government would have to consult with the Council of Europe before making any changes, mostly because they would not want Serbia to face any consequences for reintroducing the death sentence.

The country abolished the death penalty in two thousand two, and the longest sentence currently available is life in prison, which was introduced in twenty nineteen, five years after the rape and murder of a fifteen-year-old.

In other news, the staff of Radio-television of Vojvodina, or RTV, held a strike on Thursday the 4th, in front of the media building in the northern town of Novi Sad, demanding higher salaries. Darko Sper, the president of Independence, the branch union of Culture, Art and Media, said that their counterparts in Radio Television of Serbia, the largest state-owned media company in the country, earn around 1,100 dollars a month, which is double what RTV employees earn. Since then, RTV said that there was not enough money in the budget for salary increases, and that the employees need to wait until June, when television subscription prices might increase.

Since we mentioned budgets, the Finance Ministry has reported a surplus of around fifty million dollars in the first two months of twenty twenty-four, which is an improvement compared to its deficit of around twenty-seven million dollars in the same period last year. Their statement read that the budget revenues rose by nearly twenty percent in real terms, amounting to around three billion dollars. Serbia’s public debt amounted to around forty billion dollars so far in twenty twenty-four, which is an increase of 250 million dollars compared to last year.

On a related note, Banks in Serbia reported profits of around one billion dollars in twenty twenty-three. Among the most successful banks, the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank earned a profit of nearly 200 million dollars, which is an increase of around fifty percent compared to twenty twenty-two. Following Raiffeisen was the Italian Banca Intesa, whose profit amounted to around 195 million dollars. The domestic AIK bank made a profit of around seventy-five million dollars.

These three banks control most of the banking market in Serbia, and their capital totaled around 7.5 billion dollars at the end of twenty twenty-three.

Still in the economy, the Economist Intelligence Unit, or EIU, which conducts research and analysis on countries’ economies, published its Business Environment Index for the twenty twenty-four-twenty twenty-eight period. It analyzed eighty-two countries’ inflation, cost of living, economic growth, and fiscal policies to rank them by the attractiveness of doing business in them. The EIU ranked Serbia 52nd, noting that the country opened to foreign investments and boosted its macroeconomic stability and institutions, adding that it has significantly improved its business environment. The top three were Singapore, Denmark and the US, while Venezuela ranked last.

Moving on, the Roads of Serbia Public Enterprise and MTS, a state-owned telecommunications operator, have signed a cooperation agreement that aims to enable easier buying of TAG electronic toll payment devices. These devices are made for contactless toll payments, allowing vehicles to just pass by the tolling station, which automatically detects the devices and bills the driver. As of the 1st of June, TAG devices will be available for purchase at all MTS stores in Serbia. MTS will also feature a website that will allow customers to activate and manage their TAG devices and review paid tolls.

The Serbian Statistical Office, or RZS, reported that the number of tourists in twenty twenty-four has increased by ten percent compared to the same period in twenty twenty-three. The most popular locations were the natural spas Vrnjacka Banja, Banja Palic, and Sokobanja and mountain centers Zlatibor, Kopaonik, and Fruska Gora. Most of the tourists came from Russia, followed by Bosnia and Croatia.

Speaking of attractions, on Friday the 12th, Belgrade’s MTS Hall will host the Georgian National Ballet Sukhishvili. The ballet will also feature an orchestra that will play the music of traditional Georgian dances. The Sukhishvili Ballet is the only dance ensemble that has set a world record on the famous stage of Milan's La Scala. The concert even entered the Guinness Book of Records. Tickets for the ballet are available for purchase at MTS Hall’s box office and the prices range from ten to sixty dollars. For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

We want to invite you to take a look at one of Rorshok's other projects. The Daily Knowledge is a daily pocket newspaper that comes out Monday through Friday. It is in our Ourzine format, a little booklet that you have to print in order to read. In the Daily Knowledge ourzine you’ll find a collection of interesting newsletters and selected articles that take about an hour to read. Visit rorshok.com/ourzines/thedailyknowledge/ to find the latest editions. The link will also be in the show notes.

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!