Serbia: corruption, arrests and protests

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has been calling for a generic "fight against corruption" for twelve years. Until a few weeks ago, this was just empty rhetoric. Now, to calm the protests, some arrests have been made, but they remain unconvincing and the protests are not subsiding

Protests have been going on in Serbia for months, demanding political accountability and for the State to investigate and prevent corrupt practices such as those that led to one of the greatest tragedies ever in the country. The government is trying in every way to divert attention from the problem and to convince the public, or at least its supporters, that corruption did not cause the tragedy of Novi Sad, promising "zero" tolerance for the corrupt.

For years now, the President of Serbia has been announcing a "fight against corruption". We have heard many times that "the biggest campaign to fight organised crime and corruption will be launched soon", but until a few weeks ago nothing has been done.

President Vučić, as usual, announced the launch of an anti-corruption campaign in the media, before the public opinion learned about it from the police, the prosecutor's office and other competent authorities.

At the end of 2024, Vučić stated that "the state policy will be based on a fierce fight against corruption". Then, in early February, he specified that "the fight will be a daily one, prosecutors will do their job, they have full powers, it will be difficult for us, very difficult. Citizens must have faith in their country, and those who have become immoderate... what can I do?".

Vučić has announced a broad, relentless fight against corruption since he came to power twelve years ago. However, the only "broad" action taken was against Miroslav Mišković, a Serbian businessman and owner of the Delta company, who was eventually acquitted of all charges.

Since then, no investigation into "high-level corruption" has been launched, despite the fact that Serbia, according to citizens, is a highly corrupt country. In its latest annual report, Transparency Serbia highlights that the country “continues to slide in the world’s most important ranking of countries based on the perception of corruption in the public sector”, placing it at 105th, its worst result since the current survey method was introduced in 2012.

Corruption is eroding every pore of society, students, citizens and the opposition have been saying for months. That corruption is the cause of the collapse of the roof of the Novi Sad station – think of the rules circumvented, the multi-million Euro contracts secretly signed, the countless subcontractors hired, the dramatically increased costs of the work – is clear to everyone except the prosecutor’s office and the courts, who apparently do not even follow the money flows related to the reconstruction of the Novi Sad station.

Arrests

In an attempt to calm the situation, over the past month, what the government calls the fight against corruption has been reduced to a series of almost indiscriminate arrests across Serbia.

The day after Vučić’s announcement, Milorad Grčić, former director of the Serbian Electricity Company (EPS) and president of the Obrenovac municipality, was arrested. The Belgrade Prosecutor’s Office accuses Grčić of damaging EPS by more than one million Euros.

Fourteen other people were arrested along with the former EPS director, including controversial businessman Dejan Papić, who was allegedly involved in the misappropriation of EPS funds.

“This is just the beginning of a large and announced anti-corruption campaign and I expect new actions in the coming days”, said Chief Prosecutor Nenad Stefanović.

Former mayor of Niš Dragana Sotirovski was also arrested on charges of damaging the city budget by almost four million Euros. On Wednesday, March 5, eleven of the sixteen people suspected of damaging the National Geodesy Institute for about 100 million dinars (just over 9 million Euros) were arrested.

The arrests for suspected embezzlement also involved the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, a public company in Senta (in northern Vojvodina), while in Kraljevo an entrepreneur, a certain Cicmil, owner of the Promont company that controls several luxury hotels in Vojvodina, was arrested on charges of money laundering. In addition to these suspects, their assistants and accomplices were also arrested.

The arrests will not end here, at least according to what was announced by the president and the chief prosecutor. The action - designed to deflate student and civic protests, divert attention from other issues, or at least try to demonstrate that no one is untouchable, not even among those in power - have not produced the desired effect.

The protests show no signs of abating, and citizens who do not support the regime perceive the recent anti-corruption action not so much as a real fight against corruption, but rather as an intervention aimed at arresting "small fish" in a large chain of corruption.

Even Vučić's supporters, with the exception of loyalists and the hard core of his party, are skeptical that these arrests can stop corruption, and continue to accuse everyone except Vučić of criminality and corruption, believing that the president is unaware of these practices and that if he were, he would not allow them.

NGOs

Meanwhile, at the end of February, the Belgrade prosecutor's office opened preliminary investigations into several non-governmental organisations, based on allegations by some American officials about the improper use of funds that the United States, through the development agency USAID, had allocated to Serbia. To date, however, no official request for an investigation has been received from the United States.

However, Trump’s fight against USAID is also being felt in Serbia, where authorities are hoping for good cooperation with the US administration.

The police have raided the offices of several NGOs, including Civic Initiatives, CRTA, the Center for Practical Policy and the Trag Foundation. Prosecutor Stefanović said that “the police must seize all documentation related to USAID donations to determine whether there was any misuse of the money”.

The tabloids published the news about the “suspicious activities” of the aforementioned NGOs even before the police knocked on their doors. The evening before the operation, President Vučić announced it in a broadcast on Happy TV. “Well, there is BRAVO, Sviće, NDNV, NUNS, MUNS, UNS, all paid from abroad. We will help the FBI, we will provide all the information that the FBI will ask us for”.

Officially, neither the FBI nor the US administration asked their Serbian colleagues to investigate how USAID donations were spent. However, Vučić, the Speaker of the Parliament and the Chief Prosecutor listened attentively to the statements made by the US President and his close associate Elon Musk on the other side of the ocean. It is therefore not surprising that a few days ago, in a speech, Trump cited Serbia as an example of the squandering of Uncle Sam's dollars, marvelling at the amount of fourteen million dollars earmarked for improving public procurement in Serbia.

Both authorities and non-governmental organisations in Serbia have benefited from USAID funds. In addition to improving public procurement, USAID has also supported Serbian institutions in other areas, including judicial reform, environmental protection, economic competitiveness, and protection of the rights of national minorities.

Non-governmental organisations have received funding for various projects and campaigns, and the total value of donations since 2001 is estimated to have exceeded $937 million.

Ana Brnabić, Speaker of the Belgrade Parliament, who previously worked for USAID (as per Wikipedia), said she has nothing against foreign funding, as long as it is transparent. Brnabić said she does not understand why organisations that work for the rule of law are funded, when those same organisations have called for not adopting constitutional changes that “guarantee the independence of the judiciary and the prosecution”.

The Speaker of the Parliament went on to explain that “Serbia came into the news after the US administration revealed how much money was spent to destabilise Vučić and a democratically elected regime”.

Journalist Branko Čečen believes that we are witnessing the instrumentalisation of the police for political purposes by investigating the finances of non-governmental organisations, while the laundering of large sums of money through state projects is ignored.

For the Citizens' Initiatives, the intervention of the police and the prosecutor's office is "a serious attack on fundamental human rights, which continues to exert illegitimate pressure on civil society". Other non-governmental organisations, media and individuals also believe that this is a politically motivated action.

Meanwhile, the European Union has issued a statement saying that "civil society plays a fundamental role in the development of a democratic and pluralistic society and should function freely, instead of being constantly subjected to pressure".