Significant protests against a lithium mining project have turned into a powder keg under the governorship of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Public anger is so intense that the regime is displaying a harsher face toward demonstrators, with arrests, irregular interrogations, and rapid trials that lead to convictions within hours after sentencing classes are handed down.
Activists and Serbian citizens stand firm in opposition to Rio Tinto’s lithium extraction plan in the Jadar valley, a farming region, even as the regime escalates its retaliation.
Protests, far from fading, have spread across the Balkan nation, with thousands marching in nearly 50 municipalities under banners like “Rio Tinto get out of Serbia” and “They won’t mine.” The objective is to press the government to suspend the project and pass a law prohibiting lithium extraction across the country.
According to organizers from the civic association Ne damo Jadar, at least 19 people have been detained and three imprisoned following the large Belgrade demonstration last Saturday, which featured a rapid-judgment outcome.
During the welcome ceremony for Olympic athletes on Monday, protesters from another environmental group, Kreni-Promeni, briefly gained attention by unfurling a banner with the message against lithium mining, “No mines.”
Regime repression
The most notable protest took place in the capital last Saturday, with roughly 40,000 participants, according to the Public Meetings Archive that tracks demonstrations. Protesters filled Belgrade’s city center and blocked the railways at two stations, where many spent the night.
Early Sunday morning, police dismantled barricades and detained activists Ivan Bjelic, who was sentenced to 40 days in jail, and Nikola Ristic and Jevdjenije Dimitrijevic, each sentenced to 30 days, on charges of disturbing public order and peace.
The judicial system in Serbia is slow, with most cases dragging on for years. “Receiving prison sentences just hours after detention feels like political repression of dissent,” says Sofija Mandic, a lawyer with the Center for Judicial Investigations (CERPIS) quoted by El Periodico.
Mandic adds that the regime has long used repression as intimidation for years, but this phase appears to be intensifying.
She notes that it is common for victims to be young people and students rather than protest leaders, who bear the brunt of repression in the fight to preserve life and health rights.
More pressure, more protests
In response to regime repression, citizens united again on Sunday afternoon in front of the government. “Is this North Korea or Serbia?” commented Zlatko Kokanovic of Ne damo Jadar to the media, referring to the regime’s response to activists. He said the lawyers for the convicted plan to appeal and that three activists should be released.
Before the large Saturday rally, Kokanovic and partner Nebojsa Petkovic had been invited by police to a meeting with intelligence forces. This is not the first time, as Kokanovic was detained by intelligence authorities for hours of questioning a few weeks earlier.
Nor are they alone; more activists have been detained and questioned by the intelligence unit, including lawyer Branko Ivkovic in Valjevo, who was detained twice on Sunday for involvement in organizing protests. Upon leaving the police station, he posted, “No will be mined,” one of the slogans resonating amid the Jadar and Rio Tinto opposition.
Promises to the European Union
On July 19, during a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič to Belgrade, a memorandum on critical minerals was signed with Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic and the Serbian president, in the presence of President Aleksandar Vucic, backing the country’s controversial project.
The lawyer Sofija Mandic tells El Periodico that the document itself is not legally binding. “If there is any obligation, it might be a moral one for the current government to maintain good international relations with Germany,” she explains.
The central concern she notes is that the document signals a political agreement and that, if resistance and political change do not occur, decisions and permits tied to the project could be clearly swayed by such an accord.
Mandic adds that Serbian citizens take to the streets precisely because the pact signals political concessions that could lead to the project’s implementation even at the cost of vital national measures and personal values that would be irreversibly damaged.