Serbia Update – Pro-government Rally & more – 30th May 2023

th of May: 2023

On Friday the 26th, ethnic Serbs clashed with Kosovo police while trying to block recently elected Albanian officials from entering municipal buildings. Kosovo police fired tear gas at the crowd, trying to escort the officials to the buildings, which injured more than a dozen people. In response, President Vucic ordered Serbian armed forces to be at the highest level of combat readiness.

This came as a result of last month’s extraordinary elections in the north of Kosovo, which ethnic Serbs boycotted. The turnout of the elections was record low - only three percent. However, Kosovo officials still appointed the elected politicians, despite the dissatisfaction of the Serbian majority.

Serbian officials condemned NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo for failing to stop the violence of the Kosovo police against ethnic Serbs. Vucic also said that the “Albanian regime” in Kosovo is using terror against Serbs, adding that Serbia will not allow the expulsion of the Serbian people from Kosovo.

After the initial clash, more ethnic Serbs took it to Kosovo’s streets to protest against the violence Kosovo police displayed. In a peaceful protest, several hundred Serbs demanded the withdrawal of the Kosovo police and the Albanian mayors elected in the boycotted extraordinary elections. On Monday the 29th, more than a hundred KFOR, or the Kosovo Force, soldiers stationed themselves at the entrance to the Bosnian Mahala, a settlement that connects the Albanian majority south of Kosovo with the Serbian majority north. In the town of Zvecan the tensions are very high, as Kosovo’s special unit members are guarding the entrance of the municipal building, threatening citizens with tear gas. Many western leaders, such as Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, have strongly condemned the unilateral actions of Kosovo's government.

Similarly to the US, the UK, France, Italy and Germany also condemned Kosovo’s use of force. After the clash, these countries called on Kosovo’s authorities to immediately step back and de-escalate. In their joint statement, they expressed concerns over Vucic’s decision to raise the level of readiness of its Armed Forces at the border with Kosovo. Antony Blinken called on Kosovo's PM Albin Kurti to reverse the course, and said that Kosovo’s actions went against US and European advice. Peter Stano, EU foreign affairs spokesman, said in a statement that the EU will not accept any further unilateral or provocative actions.

After the tensions heightened between Kosovo and Serbia, Kosovo Serbs called on President Vucic to end the ongoing dialogue process for the normalization of relations with Kosovo. In the aftermath of the clash, the largest Serbian party in Kosovo Serbian List organized an emergency press conference. There, representatives of the local Serbs from northern Kosovo demanded that Kosovo fully withdraw all militarized Albanian units of Kosovo police from the north. They also requested the expulsion of the newly elected mayors from municipal buildings. Until their demands are met, the representatives call for the suspension of the dialogue process.

On Friday the 26th, tens of thousands of people attended the pro-government rally in support of president Aleksandar Vucic. The ruling party SNS and their supporters gathered in Belgrade to defend Vucic after several opposition-led protests demanded his resignation. Vucic accused the opposition of abusing the recent tragedies, the two mass shootings, to gain political support.

Even though Serbian officials said that the rally promotes unity and hope, many state firms and institutions threatened to fire their workers if they did not attend the demonstration. In Nis, the officials shut down the ICT, or information and communications technology sector, because the workers declined to participate in Vucic’s rally.

On the next day, on Saturday the 27th, the anti-government protesters gathered in front of the Serbian state television RTS’s building in downtown Belgrade. In the fourth Serbia against violence protest, the crowd accused the state TV of being openly pro-government, despite the laws stating that TV should be unbiased as a public broadcaster. Protesters chanted slogans urging Vucic’s resignation, demanding the resignations of top officials and the revoking of licenses for pro-government media that air violent content. Most of all, the crowd demanded that Vucic eases his grip on the mainstream media, which currently broadcasts only pro-government views and opinions. Many held flowers to commemorate the children that were the victims of the mass shootings. The opposition has pledged not to stop the demonstrations until the government fulfills their demands.

Speaking of the two huge political protests, many analysts say that both the opposition and the ruling party were using the tragic mass shootings for political reasons. Vladimir Vuletic, a sociologist, explained that the opposition tried to use the wave of sorrow after the tragedy to undermine the government's regime. Bosko Jaksic, a journalist and an analyst, criticized Vucic for belittling the Serbia Against Violence by minimizing the number of participants. He added that by organizing his own rally, Vucic only divided Serbia more.

On Thursday the 25th, US senators Chris Murphy and Gary Peters met in Belgrade with president Vucic and PM Ana Brnabic. Their visit came after Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s intelligence chief, traveled to Russia for a security conference. Murphy told Vucic that he hopes Serbia would impose sanctions on Russia, adding that Serbia will have no future in an alliance with Moscow. He also said that Vulin’s visit to Russia is not constructive for Serbia, since Russia’s aggression on Ukraine is unacceptable. The meetings also focused on the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

Since we mentioned Vucic,

He has officially stepped down as the leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, party and the party’s congress has elected the defense minister Milos Vucevic to take his place. After Vucevic sent thanks to Vucic, he said that the policy of SNS will not change and that the party’s main focus will still be the development of Serbia. Still, Vucic will remain in the party solely as a member, however, he will remain the president of the state. Vucic also confirmed that SNS will join his new umbrella political organization called People's Movement for the State. This move might be Vucic’s bid to rebrand amid the huge amount of public pressure. Some critics characterized the organization as one that could lead to a single-party rule, more or less like the case in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

In other news,

The assistant energy minister in charge of the electricity sector said that Serbia intends to invest almost sixteen billion dollars in energy infrastructure in the coming years. He said that most of the investments will go toward transmission and distribution networks. One of Serbia’s main aims is energy transition along with the greater use of renewable energy sources as a way to reduce the emissions of harmful gasses. He added that the construction of the Trans-Balkan Corridor is underway, which will connect Serbia’s power system to all its neighboring countries. The Trans-Balkan corridor will also enable a more effective integration of renewable energy sources.

In some environmental news,

Due to hail and heavy rainfall, several streams of water in Serbia overflowed and caused great damage to agricultural land and greenhouses. The Republic Hydrometeorological Institute of Serbia warned that heavy showers with thunder and hail will occur in the upcoming days. The institute also warned that due to the heavy rainfall, the water levels on both the Danube river and the river Sava will overflow the flood protection.

Now onto some health updates,

About a thousand COVID-19 cases were confirmed and four people have died this week. Compared to last week, the number of confirmed cases has decreased by a hundred.

Aaaaaand that's it for this week! You may not know it but we do updates for some other countries too. If you know anybody who might be interested, let them know. Ready? Here they are, West to East: Argentina, Venezuela, Spain, Nigeria, Poland, Turkey, Malawi, Ethiopia, Georgia, Japan. Think of anybody?

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!