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Serbian CSOs: The EU risks losing Serbia if it does not react to the ongoing crisis

Protests in Belgrade, 10 January 2025; Photo: Protesti.pics/Gavrilo Andrić

BELGRADE – Serbian civil society organisations have sent a letter to EU institutions, urging them to react to the ongoing political crisis triggered by the collapse of the railway station in Novi Sad.

“As Serbia is witnessing its largest protests of this century and the government’s increasingly authoritarian behaviour risks deepening the already serious political and societal crisis, we call on the European Union to pay more attention to the ongoing events and stand in defence of its own values in Serbia before it is too late”, the organisations say in the introduction.

The letter was sent by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, Centre for Contemporary Politics, European Movement in Serbia and Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights.

We bring the full text of the letter:

“Serbia is a country in a severe crisis. For weeks, Serbia’s students have been gathering in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and other cities to protest against President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), demanding responsibility for the railway station canopy collapse on 1 November last year, in which 15 people were killed. The protests have now spread across the country and have been joined by many thousands of people, demanding accountability and justice for the disaster.

“Your hands are bloody” has become a symbolic and powerful slogan that summarises outrage over the tragedy and, more generally, over the state’s failure to ensure public safety, as well as over its inadequate response to issues of corruption and mismanagement. As the momentum of the protests continues to grow, not just individuals but also companies, businesses and professional associations heeded the students’ calls for a day of general strike on 24 January.

In response, the government and its media have engaged in a brutal smear campaign against the students, accusing them of being manipulated by foreign security services and attempting to stage a “coloured revolution” in Serbia. In typically polarising language, president Vucic promised to expose “how money was paid over the last four years to destroy Serbia and make it a vassal state” and alleged that the spreading protests are financed from the West with the intention of toppling him and his government from power.

The authorities are also resorting to repression and covert methods. Some protesters’ personal data have been published; others have faced harassment, including, in some cases, physical abuse. In December, it was revealed that security service agents are using arrests and interrogations to take protesters’ telephones and install spyware on them, a practice which led Amnesty International to label Serbia a “digital prison”.

In their campaign against imaginary foreign agents, the government interrogated and expelled civil society activists who attended a conference in Belgrade for representing a “security threat”. Other foreign nationals, including journalists and youth activists, were publicly labelled as foreign agents, with their personal data shown on television.

There have been several incidents where cars drove into protesters, participating in traffic blockades. Reacting to one such incident, President Vucic claimed that the driver did not break any laws because he was “going his own way” and so could not be arrested and prosecuted. Only after a young female student was seriously injured did we see the perpetrator arrested and indicted.

Finally, in an attempt to regain control of the narrative and battle the powerful “bloody hands” symbol, anti-protest banners depicting a red fist with a raised middle finger were hung at major traffic interchanges in Belgrade, with a slogan declaring that this is “the Serbian nation’s answer to the attempted colour revolution”. Graffiti of the red middle finger also appeared on the walls of some schoolyards. The campaign began after some local officials shared the same symbol on their social media accounts.

The European Commission knows well that Serbia’s construction business is marred by corruption. Its 2024 report on Serbia clearly states that “public investment management and public procurement procedures continue to be marked by numerous exemptions from standard procedures”. “The total value of contracts exempted from the application of the Public Procurement Law increased from EUR 6.4 billion in 2022 to EUR 7.1 billion in 2023, i.e. roughly the same as the total value of the public procurement market in 2023.”, meaning that approximately 10% of Serbia’s GDP was spent though exemptions from the Public Procurement Law. The report is equally clear that “monitoring of transport investments’ compliance with EU standards is a general challenge”. EC is also cognisant that the “risk of corruption remains high for cases of exemptions from the law on public procurement that is not in line with the EU acquis, in particular in the context of intergovernmental agreements, which risk undermining its effectiveness in practice”. It is aware that “high-ranking public officials, who are particularly vulnerable to corruption, are not fully covered by laws”.

All this is well documented in the Commission’s own documents. And yet, the Commission remained silent as Serbia’s youth raised its voice to state exactly these same facts, pointing to 15 human lives lost as a horrible price of the government’s lack of willingness to address the issues.

The Commission’s documents also show that it is familiar with the environment in which civil society and opposition operate in the country – one “marked by verbal attacks and smear campaigns, including by high-level officials. Campaigns are waged by tabloids, including in the form of disclosure of personal data. Organisations and individuals that criticise the authorities continue to be put under pressure”.

The Commission is no stranger to Serbia’s media landscape and “threats, intimidation, hate speech and violence against journalists”; “chilling effect of statements by high-level officials on their daily and investigative work”, “issues of editorial autonomy and pluralism in the public service broadcaster” as well as “political and economic influence on the media”. They also know there is little hope of redress as “pressure on the judiciary and the prosecution services remains high, without consistent reduction in undue influence”.

The Commission – or those working for it who read their own documents – know all this very well. However, there is a striking difference between this accurate analysis and the policy it pursues toward the country.

The behaviour of high-level Commission officials in recent months has been particularly astounding. There was no statement showing understanding for the cause of those protests or for the extreme pressure under which they take place. On the contrary, without even a fleeting reference to the situation in the country, Commission officials are welcoming Serbia’s “steady progress ” in the context of “renewed EU enlargement momentum”.

Young people, their friends, parents, relatives, grandparents, farmers, professors, lawyers, doctors, theatre directors, actors are on the streets because they want a society with transparent and accountable government, with the rule of law, respect for fundamental freedoms and an independent judiciary. And they are in the streets as there is no functioning political process in the country in which one can engage hoping to produce such an outcome – every avenue has been emptied of meaning or blocked.

The values inspiring Serbia’s students and citizens used to be called “European values”. There are, however, no European flags to be seen on the streets of Serbia. This is not because the protesters are looking to Russia or China, it is because there has been no voice from the European Union supporting their cause. For geopolitical or opportunistic reasons, the EU is failing to act in line with its own analysis of the situation and continues to indulge a government that has lost any legitimacy. This has become the single biggest threat to the pro-European orientation of the country and could have long-term consequences.

The protests are entering their fourth month and are intensifying. Without institutions that can be trusted, without a political process that can resolve the crisis, with a President who sees himself as a martyr while his inflammatory and polarising language incites violence, the situation in Serbia is extremely dangerous.

Aware of the gravity of the situation, we, the undersigned civil society organisations, will work with all other actors who aligned themselves with students’ requests to identify the best way forward. There is still a chance that the European Union can be an ally in this process. Its representatives need finally to acknowledge the severity of the current crisis, support the demands for reforms and hold the authorities to account for their repressive actions. Most of all, if they wish not to lose Serbia, they have to finally begin to seriously talk and engage with its people.”

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