Franco-Serbian school ‘Vladislav Ribnikar’ It disappears into the landscape behind a cluster of museums, embassies and the golden church of St. Sava in the wealthy Vračar district. There’s nothing like the simple villages near Mladenovac, a more popular municipality south of Serbia’s capital. However, since May, the streets of Vračar have been sharing the same trauma as the streets of Mladenovac. As well as, two shooters Unrelated allegations caused dramatic scenes of panic 19 people’s lives. Some unusual events in this country, which in the spring led to the largest citizen protests since the nineties, although this time the government of nationalist Aleksandar Vučić, strongman of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), was in the crosshairs. This has finally brought to light an unprecedented democratic crisis and led to early parliamentary elections to be held this Sunday.
“Serbia is against violence.” This, grand opposition coalition That’s what emerged from these protests and is now read on dozens of posters placed throughout the city. you have a schedule catch the anger The wounds of the country with 6.5 million voters Violent dissolution of Yugoslavia and the ongoing conflict with Kosovo (a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008 but was never recognized by Belgrade) coincides with the desire of some of the population to advance social justice, democratic improvements and civil liberties. All this a very negative scenarioThat is, in times of real anxiety. With almost all of NATO and the European Union in a country that is also a candidate to join the European club, another source of instability is not opened to the doors of Europe.
In this environment of existential and political crisis, Serbs go to the polls an unusual expectation electing 250 deputies to serve in the next session Parliament (the body that will then have to elect the new Serbian Government). The challenge is precisely to leap from the past (Vučić, a moderate ultranationalist in his youth who pursued the exercise of authoritarian power at home and a balancing rhetoric between Russia and the West abroad) into an uncertain future.
bored
This war was fought not only because of the international context (especially the wars in Gaza and Ukraine), but also because Vucić, finding himself cornered, increased his own stakes. Although he is not running for office on the ballot (presidential elections are held separately), Serbian president took part election campaign with list Aleksandar Vucić – Serbia must not stop and said he would resign if his party lost.
This is what Borko Stefanović, a social democratic MP for Freedom and Justice, a senior formation of Serbia Against Violence, wants. “People get bored violenceThe corruption of one man who has almost absolute control of the state and the media. inflation This is one of the highest in Europe,” says Stefanović. “These are the years we’ve been living this way autocratic drift “The European Union also gave wide scope to this in exchange for Serbia’s so-called cooperation for regional stability,” he argues. “This country can’t take this anymore; it needs normalcy, not a Government with links to organized crime,” he criticises.
The road to change still looks long, analysts say. “The ruling SNS party has 700,000 members, 10% of the population. They are more of an employment agency than a party. Moreover his election strategy It has worked very well for years: If you don’t vote for us, you lose your job,” says Aleksandra Tomanić, director of the NGO European Balkans Fund and an outspoken speaker about the democratic crisis. “We even documented the testimony of a cancer patient who was asked to vote for a party in exchange for voting for him. Plan your surgery in a public hospital,” adds Transparency and Accountability Center researcher Tamara Branković.
partly free
They’re not the only ones who think this way. According to Transparency International, Serbia recorded the worst corruption data in the last 10 years in 2023. According to Freedom House, Serbian population Today Only “partly free”. From there too accusations of authoritarianism Opposing Vučić in the opposition, both pro-European and anti-European right-wingers (a group of small parties, some pro-Russian), also accuse the Serbian president of retaining power through domination of the media, especially Russia. television channels, most of which rarely include information critical of the president.
A separate topic is geopolitical issues, each of which has diabolical equations. Whoever wins in principle, this will not mean a radical change in the dialogue with Turkey. KosovoIt is where NATO recently reinforced its troops after a new outbreak of violence. In fact, the issue was little discussed in the election campaign, unlike the country’s current murky relationship. Vladimir Russia Another criticism of the opposition to Vucič is Putin.