SERBIA: Serbian List Sacked from Kosovo Elections & more – 31st Dec 2024

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 31st of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

The Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad filed an indictment on Monday the 31st, charging thirteen people over the deadly railway station incident in the northern city of Novi Sad. Among those charged are Goran Vesic, the then Minister of Construction, Anita Dimovski, the minister’s assistant, Jelena Tanaskovc, the acting director of Serbian Railways Infrastructure, and Nebojsa Surlan, the then general director of that infrastructure. The nine remaining suspects are representatives of construction design companies, contractors, and technical supervisors.

All of the fifteen suspects were in charge of the railway station’s renovation project in July. The charges are: criminal offence against public safety, paired with the criminal offence of improper and irregular execution of construction works.

Recall that the Novi Sad’s railway station’s canopy collapsed on the 1st of November, resulting in sixteen deaths. Ever since, students across the country have blocked their faculties in protest, demanding accountability from those responsible.

Aside from accountability, students made a list of demands which the state needs to fulfill in order to stop the faculty blockades, and president Vucic discussed them in an interview with the pro-government Radio Television of Serbia on Friday the 27th. Vucic said that he understood the energy of the youth and their ambitions to shape the country’s future, adding that the government has fulfilled all their demands. He promised that those who were violent to students would face justice, but noted that students should participate in civilized discussions and dialogue instead of protesting.

Despite the President’s remarks, university students do not believe that all of their requests have been met. Their demands in response to the railway station tragedy in the northern city of Novi Sad include the publication of all documents related to the station’s recent renovation, the dropping of all charges against students, and the prosecution of individuals who attacked students.

On Wednesday the 25th, Kosovo's Electoral Panel for Appeals and Petitions announced that they are annulling a decision by the Central Election Commission aimed at preventing a Serbian party from participating in the upcoming elections in Kosovo. Last week we mentioned that the Central Election Commission banned Serbian List, the largest Serbian party in Kosovo, from participating in elections there, because Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Many criticized the decision, including the US, the UK and the EU, saying that the ban undermined the basic democratic principles of free and fair elections. The Serbian List party filed a complaint, with its leader Elek accusing Kosovo’s prime minister Kurti of ordering it. Elek said that the ban was intended to remove Serbians from Kosovo, labeling Kurti as anti-Serbian.

In more tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, the Kosovar police closed the offices of the Serbia-affiliated Public Housing Directorate and the Urban Construction and Road Directorate on Thursday the 26th. The police entered the building where the offices are located at the request of the Municipality of North Mitrovica, in order to investigate alleged document forgery.

Kosovo’s interior minister said that the two directorates were illegally charging citizens and businesses for the use of facilities under the directorates’ management. The police evacuated everyone from the building and removed all Serbian flags that were in the front, closing it indefinitely.

These closures are some of the most recent ones in the series of closures the Kosovo police have done over Serbian institutions over the years, with the underlying issue being Serbia’s refusal to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

On the same day, two of the largest opposition parties in Serbia signed a unification agreement. The coalition Together merged with the Democratic Party, or DS, to stabilize Serbia’s opposition by becoming one influential party, instead of existing as smaller coalitions. Both parties said that the main goal for DS is establishing the rule of law and democracy in Serbia, which they believe would contribute to a more lawful country.

Since we mentioned protests earlier, on Wednesday the 25th, there were demonstrations in front of the City Assembly building during a parliament session to determine the budget for Belgrade for twenty twenty-five. Among those gathered in front of the building were activists, opposition MPs and regular citizens. The gathering aimed to prevent the adoption of the capital’s budget for next year, with the protesters and opposition MPs accusing the proposed budget plan to be catering to investors close to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS. Despite the protests, the Parliament approved a budget for twenty twenty-five by a majority vote.

While on the topic of the SNS, its founder,Vucic, recently came under fire for pushing the narrative many analysts found misleading regarding the recent announcement of sanctions against the state-owned petroleum industry NIS. Recall that last week, we spoke about Vucic’s announcement of the possible US sanctions on NIS, which he explained were due to NIS being majorly owned by Gazprom, a Russian majority state-owned energy corporation.

However, Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Serbia, contradicted Vucic’s statement, saying that there were no indications of possible US sanctions on NIS. Ever since, many political analysts have said that Vucic was trying to leverage both the energy agreements with the US and Russia. He’s using the potential US sanctions to justify Serbia’s desire to regain the majority of ownership of NIS from the Russians Simultaneously, that would cater to the West, since Serbia would be reducing Russia’s presence in its policies. However, the analysts highlighted that such strategies are misleading, and can cause panic in the country.

Now for some economy news. The State Statistical Office, or ZSO, announced on Sunday the 30th that the Serbian gross domestic product, or GDP, grew by four percent compared to twenty twenty-three. When it came to sector performances, the most successful was construction with a growth of around nine percent year-on-year. The worst performing sector was agriculture with a decline in production of nearly nine percent compared to last year. ZSO also noted that the average salary increased by around ten percent, while the inflation stood at four percent.

In some environmental news, Serbian geologists and ecologists are growing more concerned about the state of water safety in the country. Miomir Komatina, a prominent Serbian geologist, noted a decades-long issue of certain cities in the country not having drinkable water. He said that when it came to Belgrade, the officials did not pay considerable attention to preserving water sources. Instead, they mapped large construction projects, such as Belgrade on water, on top of some of the more significant water sources of the entire northern region, losing them altogether

Ecologists also said that ore mining in Serbia has significantly impacted the state of the water in the country, due to the amount of waste it generates. Currently, Serbia has more than 250 untreated mining landfills, from which the trash usually migrates to local rivers and lakes.

Speaking of landfills, on Thursday the 26th, the police filed criminal charges against Momir Milovanovic, former director of the regional landfill Deep in the central town of Uzice, due to environmental damage. The Deep landfill in Uzice was shut down prior to the charges of its former director, in November, due to irregularities which posed dangers to the environment found during an extraordinary inspection. Activists from the Let’s (not) breathe deeply association brought up several cases of fires at the landfill, noting that such accidents are dangerous for the health of the citizens.

On a more positive note, the Alek Kavcic Foundation is organizing a Christmas Concert for Orthodox Christmas on the 7th of January at the Grand Hall of the Kolarac Endowment in Belgrade. Several orchestras from schools, universities and academies will perform together with professional artistic ensembles such as the Belgrade Opera. The admission is free, and tickets are available at the Kolarac Endowment box office. For more information, check out the link in the show notes!

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

Before leaving we want to wish you a happy and exciting twenty twenty-five! Thank you for sticking with us, sharing the podcast, and being such an amazing part of our community. We’ll be here as long as you’re enjoying the episodes, so if you have any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions for how we can get better, don’t hesitate to reach out—shoot us an email at info@rorshok.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!