SERBIA: Statehood Day & more – 18th Feb 2025

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 18th of February twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Saturday the 15th, more than 150,000 Serbian citizens gathered in the central town of Kragujevac to celebrate Statehood Day - but also to protest the lack of accountability from the state regarding the canopy collapse in the northern city of Novi Sad, which killed fifteen people on the 1st of November last year. Recall that after the tragedy, students began holding demonstrations demanding justice for the victims.

People gathered in this city because The first-ever Constitution was adopted in Kragujevac on the 15th of February, eighteen thirty-five. However, the location was also symbolic for the protest since this constitution aimed to limit the power of the country's ruler for the first time. Citizens from the entire country traveled to Kragujevac to attend the demonstration, which lasted for fifteen hours.

On the same day, president Vucic organized his own rally to celebrate Statehood day and talk about the student protest in the north-western city of Sremska Mitrovica. Some of the attendees of Vucic’s rally, usually public sector employees, reported that they were pressured into attending to keep their jobs.

During the rally, he adopted the Declaration on Vojvodina written by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS - which aims to solidify the northern province’s position as part of Serbia and prevent its separation. The document stated that there is currently a plan to revive separatist ideas and movements which aim to declare Vojvodina as its own sovereign nation

Many pro-government media reported on the declaration of Vojvodina and said that the protesting students were promoting the secession of the province. Despite the numerous accusations from both the government and the media (which backs it), none of them provided any proof to support their allegation. Still, the declaration was adopted.

While on the topic of student protests, the plenary assembly of the University of Arts in Belgrade called for a boycott of the Serbian state-owned Radio Television of Serbia, or RTS, due to the misleading statements about the students and their demands. Since the protests began, the pro-regime RTS published numerous stories targeting students, and stood in defense of the SNS. A month ago, students from the University of Arts gave RTS a thirty-day deadline to correct their statements regarding the protests. However, that deadline has now expired. On Friday the 14th, they called for the boycott.

Recall that the students demand prosecution of those responsible for the Novi Sad tragedy, the release of all students arrested at protests, prosecution of everyone who assaulted students and protesting citizens, and a twenty-percent increase to the education budget.

Last week president Vucic announced arrests of several high-ranking officials for the coming days in an effort to fight corruption in Serbia. On Wednesday the 12th, police arrested Milorad Grcic, the former director of Serbia’s energy company, Elektroprivreda Srbije, or EPS, along with fourteen others, on suspicion of abusing their positions in the company. Authorities accused them of pocketing money that should have gone to the company, which cost the EPS over a hundred million dinars, which is around 900,000 dollars. Currently, Grcic is the head of the Belgrade municipality of Obrenovac and a local official of the ruling SNS party.

While on the topic of arrests, on Thursday the 13th, authorities arrested four employees from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in connection to the deadly fire at a retirement home near Belgrade, which took place in January and left eight people dead. The suspects were the head of the Department for Inspection Supervision and three inspectors from the department. They are presumed to have allowed electrical work to be done at the retirement home that did not meet the legal requirements, causing the fire, which could not be contained. Additionally, the retirement home was hosting more residents than it was legally allowed.

Last week, the EU condemned Serbia’s efforts in maintaining its relations with Russia. During the visit of Marko Đurić, the Foreign Minister, to Moscow, the EU said that such an action goes against the EU's foreign policy, and advised Serbia to keep its ties with Russia at its minimum. Đurić went to Russia to speak about issues regarding US sanctions on the state-owned energy company NIS due to its largely Russian ownership, but also to discuss relations with Kosovo and the war in Ukraine.

The EU criticized Serbia for continuing to involve itself with Russia, instead of condemning their aggression on Ukraine and imposing sanctions. They advised Serbia to adopt and implement the EU-proposed packages of broad sanctions against Russia and its allies.

So far, Serbia is one of the few countries that has EU-candidate status but has not imposed sanctions on Russia.

Speaking of the EU, its foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas spoke last week about changing the format of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue for the normalization of relations. Kallas said that the dialogue has not led to any meaningful improvements, noting the stalling of both parties in implementing agreements. The EU is waiting for Kosovo to assemble its new government, to determine what the new approach to the normalization dialogue will look like. Kallas also said that she had spoken with the Serbian foreign minister, and said that he expressed readiness to reach the normalization of relations through the dialogue.

On Wednesday the 12th, the NGO Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability, better known as CRTA, submitted an initiative to the Constitutional court, asking them to assess the constitutionality of more than fifty laws adopted in November last year. The CRTA stated that the laws feature a series of serious omissions that violated the Constitution. Some of the documents the CRTA is referring to include the twenty twenty-five budget law, amendments to the Criminal Code, and certain laws in energy and environmental protection.

Recall that in November last year, the Parliament held a meeting where the ruling coalition adopted several new laws without a debate. At the time, opposition MPs protested the meeting, but Ana Brnabic, the Parliament Speaker, held it anyway. The CRTA accused her of abusing her position by abolishing debate as a key element of parliamentary work.

Now for some news on the economy. The Credit Bureau of the Association of Serbian Banks published a report on Wednesday the 12th on indebtedness. The report shows that the total debt of legal entities, entrepreneurs, and individuals for January amounted to nearly four billion dinars in loans, which is around thirty-five million dollars. Compared to the same period last year, the overall debt increased by eleven percent.

When it comes to the environment, the Green Climate Fund, or GCF, announced on Tuesday the 18th that it has approved funding for a new project aiming to mitigate climate change in Serbia. The GCF highlighted that Serbia faces various climate issues, such as rising temperatures, heatwaves, and climatic hazards that are degrading its environment and affecting its citizens. They said that Serbia still practices outdated forest management, and that in addition to unsustainable firewood extraction, it is contributing to significant climate shifts.

They noted that their new project, which is worth nearly ten billion dinars, which is around ninety million dollars, aims to promote sustainable and climate-resilient forest management by strengthening forest governance and supporting vulnerable communities that rely on firewood for heating.

Closing with some cultural news, from the 20th to the 23rd of February, Belgrade’s Sava Center is hosting the Broadway adaptation of the French novella The Little Prince to celebrate the book’s 80th anniversary. Written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the book is one of the best-selling and most translated books of all time. Tickets for the play range from 3,000 to 10,000 dinars, which is around thirty to ninety dollars, and are available online. 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!