Serbia | New electoral protests in Belgrade, Moscow accuses the West

(Belgrade) Protest actions took place again on Monday in Belgrade to denounce fraud during the recent legislative elections won by the nationalist right, Moscow seeing behind these mobilizations the desire of the West to “destabilize” Serbia.

A few hundred demonstrators first blocked several arteries in the capital before meeting in the evening in front of police stations to demand the release of protesters arrested the day before during clashes in front of Belgrade town hall.

The building was then attacked by demonstrators who tried to enter before being pushed back by the police. Two police officers were seriously injured and at least 35 people arrested, according to authorities.

Criticizing this violence, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, whose SNS (nationalist right) party won the December 17 vote, claimed to have proof that it had been “fomented abroad”.

Belgrade’s main ally, Moscow stepped up to the plate on Monday to accuse the West of being in charge. “It is obvious that the West as a whole is seeking to destabilize the situation” in Serbia, declared the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, quoted by the public agency RIA Novosti.

She compared these protests to those of the Maidan in Kyiv, which resulted in pro-Westerners coming to power in Ukraine in early 2014.

“Attempts by third-party forces, including from abroad, to provoke such unrest in Belgrade are obvious,” added Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov during his daily press briefing.

In the December 17 vote, Mr. Vucic’s party obtained more than half of the 250 seats in Parliament.

But the largest opposition coalition, Serbia Against Violence, denounced electoral fraud, notably by allowing Serbian voters from neighboring Bosnia to vote illegally in the capital.

The European Union was shocked by the situation and Germany described the allegations as “unacceptable” for a country hoping to join the EU.

So far, Aleksandar Vucic has managed to maintain a balance between East and West, promising to keep Serbia on the path to EU membership, while remaining very close to Russia and courting China as much as Washington .

But, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Belgrade has never applied sanctions against Russia, from where it notably imports gas.

Mr. Vucic’s successes in his country have mainly revolved around the economy, in one of the poorest countries on the European continent, which saw inflation reach 16% in the spring before decreasing to around 8% in November.

For his supporters, however, Vucic’s years in power brought order and billions in investment. Between 2012 and 2022, foreign direct investments in Serbia increased from 1 to 4.4 billion euros.

“Otpor” (Resistance)

In Belgrade, demonstrators, mainly students from the “Borba” (Combat) organization, are demanding the revision of the electoral lists which, according to them, are the cause of electoral fraud.

“I was born in 2002 and I didn’t think that I would have to fight for democracy in the streets like my parents did,” said Emilija Milenkovi, a political science student.

“But I have to do it,” added the 21-year-old wearing a badge from the historic Otpor (Resistance) student movement, which had participated in the protest against the power of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the 2000s.

This election attracted widespread criticism after international observers, notably the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), denounced a series of “irregularities”, including “vote buying” and “the ballot stuffing.”

Hundreds of people have since demonstrated daily in front of the Serbian Electoral Commission and international condemnations have poured in. Members of the main opposition list, Serbia Without Violence, began a hunger strike with the aim of overturning the results.