SERBIA: The New Government & more – 15th April 2025

Dobar dan from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 15th of April twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Monday the 14th, prime minister-designate Djuro Macut proposed a new thirty-member cabinet to the Parliament, with only eight new ministers and thirty-two left over from the previous government. Among the new faces is the new minister of education, Dejan Vuk Stankovic - a university professor who is accused of sexual assault. Another one is the minister of information, Boris Bratina, who recorded himself burning an EU flag. All of the members, old and new, are tied to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, in some way, with some being members, and others avid supporters.

Recall that the resignation of the former prime minister Vucevic two and a half months ago left Serbia in need of a new government. Vucevic quit amid the growing unrest in the country triggered by the Novi Sad railway station tragedy which killed sixteen people. Student-led protests and faculty blockades engulfed Serbia ever since the tragedy, garnering overwhelming support from the citizens and the diaspora.

Speaking of the student protests, the western city of Novi Pazar hosted a huge demonstration on Saturday the 12th, with students from all over the country participating to show support. Students walked on foot and biked to Novi Pazar to show resilience and determination. At the end of the protest, a student released a white dove as a symbol of peace.

Students refuse to end their blockades until their demands are met, which include the publishing of the entire documentation related to the faulty railway station’s renovation, the prosecution of those who have assaulted students during protests, and the cancellation of all charges against protesting students.

While the students protested in Novi Pazar, president Vucic organized a rally in front of the Parliament building. Among the supporters were Milorad Dodik, the Interpol-wanted populist leader of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska, and Viktor Orban, the conservative Prime Minister of Hungary, who addressed the participants through a video message.

Addressing the gathered citizens, Vucic presented his demands, including the end of faculty blockades. He also demanded that institutions, which he says students have captured, go back to their regular programs, referring to the state-owned Radio Television of Serbia, or RTS, which began reporting unbiasedly on the student-led protests recently. Recall that the RTS refused to broadcast the protests in the beginning, bringing students to boycott the media outlet for its pro-regime bias.

On Thursday the 10th, police in the southern city of Nis entered the faculty of Medicine after the faculty’s dean called them. The police went to the faculty building and told the students that they only needed to check their IDs. However, the officers then started issuing summonses to the students blocking their faculty and some professors, calling them in for informal police interviews. They then took them to the police station, confiscated their phones and kept them in for several hours.

Upon hearing the news, fellow students and other citizens gathered in front of the police station demanding their release, which the police did shortly after. While the reason behind the police raid is unknown, students believe it was a ploy from their pro-regime dean to scare them into ending the faculty blockade.

Going back to student demands, the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee commented on Wednesday the 9th about the situation in Serbia, primarily civil liberties, corruption, environmental protection and institutional and financial transparency. The Committee said that they regret that the Serbian government missed the opportunity to fulfill the students’ demands, adding that they align with the requirements for EU membership to a great extent.

In the report, MEPs call for a full official investigation into the Novi Sad railway station tragedy, and into the potential use of an unlawful sound cannon against protesters by the authorities.

Recall that an unidentified sound caused a stampede in the crowd during a silent vigil for the Novi Sad victims held on the 15th of March in Belgrade during a demonstration, after which the protesters accused the police of using a sound cannon.

Speaking of the railway station tragedy investigation, the Higher Court in Novi Sad failed to confirm the indictment of Goran Vesic, the former Transport Minister, and twelve other people due to a lack of information. On Friday the 11th, the Court returned the indictment to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office for further investigation, noting that they are unsure whether the charges are justified. The indictment, filed back in December, charged thirteen people over the collapse of the Novi Sad railway station canopy, noting that they were negligent about the building’s quality during its renovation in July last year.

On Thursday the 10th, Andrej Plenkovic, the Croatian prime minister, called on the Serbian government to explain the expulsion of three Croatian citizens from Serbia, calling it unacceptable. Prior to his call, the Croatian embassy in Serbia received the news that the Serbian authorities had decided to expel Croatian-born citizens living in Serbia, for seemingly no reason. These people were living in Serbia, had jobs and families there, but the authorities declared them a threat to the country’s security, with no further explanation.

Arien Stojanovic Ivkovic, one of the expelled citizens, said that she suspected that the reason behind the ousting was their open support for the student-led protests. Prime Minister Plenkovic urged the EU to condemn Serbia’s decision.

In some news on the economy, the media outlet New Economy reported last week about the recent supermarket chain boycotts that have been going on in Serbia. It said that the shorter, one-day-long boycotts led to a significant drop in purchases and revenue. New Economy said that on the day of the general strike on the 24th of January, a total turnover in the five largest supermarket chains amounted to one billion dinars, which is around ten million dollars. Compared to the day earlier, the revenue was down by a quarter, when the total turnover amounted to around 1.5 billion dinars, around fourteen million dollars.

However, the outlet said that the longer boycotts were not as productive, referring to

a week-long boycott in February, which did not make significant changes in the retail chains’ revenue. Currently, the boycott is focused on the supermarket chain Maxi due to their high prices and will last until the end of April.

Speaking of high prices, the Statistical Office published that the inflation for the month of March amounted to 4.4 percent year-on-year, which is down by 0.1 percent compared to February. It said that prices of many goods and services increased compared to last year, with the largest hikes seen in restaurant and hotel services, by around nine percent, and food and non-alcoholic beverages, by around five percent.

In more numbers, last week the EU’s statistical agency Eurostat published data on the real GDP per capita for nearly all European countries. Serbia was at the bottom of the list, with its real GDP per capita amounting to around 9,000 dollars, which is less than thirty percent of the EU average of 30,000 dollars. This means that an EU citizen is, on average, nearly four times wealthier than a Serbian citizen. On the other end of the list, the richest country in Europe was Luxembourg, whose real GDP per capita reached around 100,000 dollars.

Closing this edition with cultural news, on Thursday the 17th Belgrade’s Academy 28 is hosting a flamenco show De Las Llamas with a performance titled Cinco. Featuring both music and dance, the show aims to tell five women’s stories in the language of flamenco. Tickets go from around 3,300 dinars, which is around thirty dollars, to around 5,000 dinars, around fifty dollars.

For more info, check out the link in the show notes!

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

Did you know that the Rorshok Serbia Update is just one of many? We’ve got country updates, and non-county updates, including the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Multilateral Update, about the world’s major multilateral institutions, and the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water.

To check out the full list of updates, follow the link in the show notes!

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!