(C) Freedom House
This story was originally published by Freedom House and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
A Moment of Reckoning for Serbian Corruption [1]
[]
Date: 2025-09
Last November, 15 people were killed when a canopy collapsed at Serbia’s Novi Sad train station. A 16th victim, 19-year-old Vukašin Crnčević, passed away from his injuries last month. What might have been seen as an unfortunate accident in another country was, in Serbia, just the latest and most horrifying consequence of a political system in which corrupt elites enrich themselves at the expense of the public and its interests.
Ordinary citizens have taken to the streets in response, creating Serbia’s largest protest movement in years. They are demanding justice for the victims in Novi Sad and an end to the system that caused their deaths. Rather than addressing these legitimate grievances, authorities have sought to suppress dissent by smearing demonstrators as foreign-backed agitators, launching police raids on the offices of nongovernmental organizations, and cracking down on independent media.
The Serbian protests are part of a much larger reckoning—one that is unfolding across Southeastern Europe, as citizens reject the lie that repression and corruption are simply the price of political or socioeconomic “stability.” From Belgrade to Skopje and Sofia, people are demanding more than just the removal of individual politicians; they want systemic reforms to ensure accountability and prevent further tragedies.
Serbia’s democratic partners should push the country’s leadership to address long-standing problems related to judicial independence, media freedom, and electoral integrity. If the government of President Aleksandar Vučić manages to stifle the current protest movement without meaningful reform, it will send a dangerous message to other would-be autocrats that they can dismantle the institutions meant to hold them accountable and ignore popular discontent without facing any international repercussions. More importantly, such an outcome would signal to the rest of the world that activists and ordinary people aspiring to live in a free and lawful society no longer have the support of the United States, the European Union, and other democratic powers.
The deadly consequences of a hollowed-out state
Under President Vučić, Serbia has experienced a significant decline in democratic norms and governance. He and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) have taken actions that have systematically eroded institutional checks and balances and consolidated their control over key state functions since entering government more than a decade ago. This concentration of power has enabled widespread corruption, with lucrative public contracts awarded based on political ties rather than free competition and competence. The Novi Sad tragedy was simply a catalyst for the eruption of long-standing public resentment about endemic graft. Official investigations into the collapse led to the indictment of 13 individuals, but as independent journalists and civil society groups have reported, evidence of high-level corruption was already abundant and deliberately ignored. The very institutions meant to prevent such disasters, from regulatory agencies to the judiciary, have been hollowed out and repurposed to shield the ruling elite rather than serve the public.
The protest movement gained momentum in January when students in Belgrade launched a traffic blockade after police assaulted demonstrators mourning the Novi Sad victims. Their defiance galvanized a nationwide coalition, bringing together farmers, teachers, and lawyers. Many came forward to reject the government’s smears and hate speech against the student protesters and their faculty supporters. On March 15, the movement reached a historic milestone, as more than 100,000 people flooded the streets of the capital in one of the largest anticorruption demonstrations in Serbia’s recent history. Protesters are now demanding not just justice for the Novi Sad victims but systemic reforms—including an end to ruling-party control over the public broadcaster, genuine independence for anticorruption bodies, and the restoration of free and fair elections.
Choosing repression instead of reform
Years of corrupt and incompetent governance have led to mounting public frustration. Instead of addressing the protesters’ demands for accountability, however, the Serbian government has relied on denial, deflection, and outright repression. Officials across Serbia have dismissed public outrage, while state-aligned media outlets have worked to shift blame away from those at the very top of the regime.
The degraded criminal justice system has not only failed to punish high-level corruption, but also served as an instrument of the corrupt, with critics of the regime facing legal harassment. Police and security forces have been deployed to intimidate demonstrators, leading to reports of arbitrary detentions and excessive force. The courts, packed with government loyalists, routinely dismiss cases related to ruling-party corruption even as protesters and opposition figures are targeted with fabricated charges. The judicial rot extends to electoral oversight: elections in recent years have been marred by voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, and the misuse of state resources to benefit the ruling party.
In an attempt to defuse public anger, the mayor of Novi Sad and Prime Minister Miloš Vučević have both resigned, and Vučić has floated the idea of new elections. But protesters are rightfully skeptical that early balloting under Serbia’s manipulated electoral system would lead to meaningful change. With institutions of accountability dismantled and repression escalating, the Serbian people are left with virtually no democratic avenues for redress of their grievances, making mass protests one of the few remaining ways to seek relief.
Who will stand with Serbians against corruption?
While rooted in Serbia’s specific context, the current protests reflect a broader regional pattern: people across Southeastern Europe are rejecting corruption as the supposed price of political or socioeconomic stability. As demonstrations spread and intensify, it remains unclear whether international actors will stand with those fighting for democratic accountability.
After many months of muted responses, the European Union’s leaders are only now beginning to publicly criticize Serbia’s leadership. In a mild rebuke of developments in the country, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos stated plainly that “if [Serbia] does not fight corruption in a way that has independent institutions, it cannot become a member of the European Union.” But even that criticism was blunted with a realpolitik follow-up: “[Vučić] is the only politician with whom we can currently discuss its European path.”
Criticism from across the Atlantic has been limited as well. Washington’s pivot toward an “America first” foreign policy and mixed messaging on democracy promotion has encouraged Vučić’s government, and Serbian authorities quickly seized upon the new US administration’s rhetoric about corruption and fraud among recipients of US development aid to help justify their raids on local civic groups. Though this may have been an unintended consequence of shifts in US policy priorities, it was also a predictable response from an autocratizing hybrid regime in Serbia that has long exploited changes in the geopolitical landscape to avoid repercussions for its antidemocratic actions.
If the United States and European Union want to strengthen security and prosperity in their own countries, they will have to push potential partners and allies to uphold the rule of law and fundamental freedoms. Prioritizing short-term goals and expediency over democratic principles in relations with Serbia will embolden would-be autocrats across the region, and force protesters who seek support from the democratic powers to continue their struggle alone, ultimately creating a less free, less stable continent. The people of Serbia are fighting for more than their own future. They are standing against the global expansion of authoritarian rule. Washington and Brussels would do well to stand with them.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://freedomhouse.org/article/moment-reckoning-serbian-corruption
Published and (C) by Freedom House
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/freedomhouse/
