Following the recent elections in Serbia, demonstrations over suspected voter fraud increased during the holidays.
Mass meeting in front of the Belgrade police headquarters. “Let them go,” shouted the angry crowd. After fighting for days for the annulment of parliamentary and local elections, government critics demanded that their friends be released at Christmas: police arrested dozens of students and opposition members on Christmas Eve after they tried to storm the City Hall of Belgrade.
Following the vote a week and a half ago, in which the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won a controversial victory, thousands of Serbs took to the streets every day. The protest intensified during the holidays: government opponents threw stones; police responded with tear gas.
Protesters accuse President Aleksandar Vučić's party of having “stolen” victory. They demand the publication of voter lists, in which Western election observers also reported irregularities: deceased people suddenly returned to the register; Furthermore, the government systematically brought up to 50,000 voters from neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina to Belgrade by bus.
To send a signal against the election results, at least five politicians from the opposition movement “Serbia Against Violence” began a hunger strike. Photos of prominent government critic Marinika Tepić circulating in newspapers were shown by doctors who administered an infusion to her. Meanwhile, Serbia's electoral authority rejected protesters' demands for new elections: an order to that effect would exceed its authority. In general, canceling the elections would mean ignoring the will of the Serbs, SNS party leader and Serbian Defense Minister Miloš Vučević emphasized. He described the opposition's allegations of fraud as “children's stories”.
Along with four other Western Balkan states, Serbia is a candidate for EU membership. After the electoral fiasco, experts estimate that the chances of early admission are once again distant. “The government of President Aleksandar Vučić, which has been in power for twelve years, is fundamentally not prepared to do what an EU Member State should do: govern democratically and in accordance with the rule of law”, says the Southeast expert European Florian Bieber, from the University of Graz. In addition to the campaign against the opposition, this is also visible in the control that Vučić exercises over the media and in the “obvious collaboration with organized crime”.
The Balkan power mosaic is complicated by the Russian war of aggression, Bieber explains. Until now, Vučić was seen as a factor of stability in southeastern Europe. After the controversial elections, however, a rethink is taking place in Brussels. Bieber said: “If Europe fails to integrate the region and ensure lasting peace, there is a risk of crises.”