Alexandra Karpi, a Balkan expert for the American organization Freedom House, stated that the demands of the demonstrators in Serbia are justified, but she is concerned about the government’s response, which repeats a well-known pattern of disproportionate use of force at protests.
Another recurring pattern is that the ruling party in Serbia calls for early elections during a crisis, but she noted that there are no signs that any of the election conditions have changed, Karpi told Voice of America (VOA).
The Freedom House expert also draws attention to the phenomenon of “transactional politics” that is increasingly common between Serbia and the West, and due to which external pressure on the government may not be as strong as the opposition would expect.
Alexandra Karpi says that the current protests in Serbia are reminiscent of the “Serbia Against Violence” protests, after the mass killings in Belgrade and near Mladenovac in May 2023, with the specificity that students are now leading the protests.
“I am concerned about the government’s response to these protests… We see that there are more and more violent clashes with the police and it seems to me that there is a disproportionate use of force against the demonstrators, which is worrying. But it is also a pattern of behavior of the ruling party that we have been following for a long time. We saw this during the protests against lithium mining in August. And that is a warning sign in terms of where Serbian democracy is headed,” said Karpi.
She recalled that Freedom House has been recording a decline in democracy for years.
“The positive side of the story is that there is still a local demand for democracy and demands for accountability and transparency. But the space to hear those voices and have a more significant impact on the political scene is drastically shrinking.”
Speaking about the protests triggered by the deaths of 15 people at the Novi Sad Railway Station, Karpi said it is important to emphasize that the local demands are democratic and legitimate, due to the lives that were lost.
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“Everything that is happening now is a result of the years-long decline of institutions, and Serbia is falling further and further behind our indicators every year,” she said.
She also drew attention to the narrative cultivated by the President of Serbia, the tactic of delegitimizing the demonstrators.
“When they talk about ‘colored’ revolutions, about how these are not legitimate protests, that they are financed from abroad, that it is a coup d’état – we have seen all this in all the protests in recent years. And then when we talk about international factors, how could someone from abroad comment on this without it being used as an asset by the ruling party and used against the demonstrators? The situation is very complex,” said Karpi.
She believes that without international pressure, we cannot expect the regime to make any changes overnight.
“And when we talk about the broader Western policy towards the region in recent years, it has been – to put it mildly – not to interfere very directly.”
“The EU and the US have reacted quietly to the protests against lithium, and this gives the impression of an increasingly ‘transactional’ policy. In the sense that, as long as Aleksandar Vučić offers economic or security benefits – support for Ukraine, for example – there will be no strong international pressure – which we know this government reacts to,” said Karpi.
She said that she was alarmed by the Amnesty International report, which states that the Serbian police and intelligence services are using surveillance software to monitor journalists, dissidents, and activists.
“We at Freedom House are very concerned about this report. We know that this level of surveillance is not only disproportionate, but also has a very negative impact on democracy – it undermines procedures, privacy, basic democratic processes, the functioning of institutions, and affects freedom of speech and civil society,” said the expert of the American organization Freedom House for the Balkans.
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Source: N1, Photo: Serbian Times