Democracy and Human Rights

In November 2024, the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad killed 16 people and sparked the largest student-led protests in Serbia's modern history. Initial grief gave way to a decentralised movement that is demanding accountability, far-reaching reforms and new elections, despite brutal repression by the regime. The protests have exposed the failure of 'stabilitocracy' and brought Serbia's democratic future — and the EU's role in it — to the forefront of political debate.

More than 25 years after the bombing campaign that ended the war in Kosovo, this conversation between Granit Gashi and Nemanja Georgijević, now colleagues at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Belgrade, displays their parallel yet contrasting experiences – one as a child refugee forced from his Peja home, the other as a four-year-old in Belgrade learning about the world through state television and family conversations – illuminating how the same historical moment was experienced and processed differently on each side. Interview by Milan Bogdanović. 

While Brussels may see the Jadar lithium mining project as a strategic step toward a greener future, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić sees it as a tactical tool to reinforce his grip on power - just as hundreds of thousands rise to reclaim democracy.

In literal terms a harasser comes at me physically, but it's really my focus, attention, and sense of freedom he walks away with.In Kosovo, we have experienced large-scale gender liberalization in real terms (members of parliament, women in workforce, higher education attainment rates) since the war in ‘99, but we have not shaken off the more subtle lived-experienced elements of the patriarchy, such as the tax of harassment.

The electoral system and the guaranteed seats favor brave new non-majority actors with even minimal levels of voter support, regardless of the level of Serb participation, and can turn them into political kingmakers at local and national levels. Boycotts are a self-defeating strategy, and civil resistance is a good short-term strategy to mobilize and draw attention, but not one that guarantees solutions. The electoral year of 2025 is the moment of truth for Kosovo Serbs.  

Ivan Čolović reflects on his contribution to Perspectives SEE from five years ago, with context on additional developments in two footnotes. The myth of the Battle of Kosovo Field on June 28th 1389, in which the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Murat I and Serbian Prince Lazar clashed, has, since the early 19th century to this day, served the purpose of legitimizing various political and military projects: From the breakup of communist Yugoslavia and the policies of Slobodan Milosevic, through the “Kosovo is Serbia” motto, as part of the Serbian “European agenda”, to the dialogue –both internal and with Brussels– led by Aleksandar Vučić. The “Kosovo Covenant” in modern Serbian history is used to accommodate various political ideas and actions.

Due to its imposing design, function, as well as central location directly across the street from the Government of Serbia, the General Staff building has become a symbol of the 1999 bombing, and everything consciously or subconsciously connected to that event - the undeniable trauma from those times, the self-righteous indignation at the “unprovoked” illegal NATO aggression and violation of Serbia’s territorial integrity, as well as the all-consuming stagnation and inability to recover from the defeat and create a functional society.  

The current state of affairs best suits the stabilocratic despot Aleksandar Vučić, who, against the backdrop of a gaping vacuum, creates narratives that suit his ongoing need for capital enlargement. In spite of the fact that the current President of the Serbiatrics department is an honored guest and friend of the very people who were leading NATO countries during the bombing (Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schröder), he doesn’t shy away from presenting himself to his voters and the public at large as a man who will stand up for the fatherland and bare his teeth to the enemy, just like he did before (he didn’t!).

Disappointment on election night, after the preliminary results based on vote samples, was enormous. The pro-European opposition, gathered around the coalition Srbija protiv nasilja (Serbia Against Violence), promised more than it could deliver in terms of defending the integrity of the vote, every vote, as opposition representatives would say, so that its result, which is fairly good under completely irregular electoral conditions, was negligible to the majority of its voters.

The 14th edition of Anibar set up a new momentum by opening the gates for a public dialogue on queer rights at the local level in Kosovo for the first time.

Severe heatwaves are not the only factor boiling up the atmosphere in Serbia this summer. Tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets in a wave of protests for 12 consecutive weeks. The scale of these protests, erupting in Belgrade and spreading across almost 40 Serbian cities and towns, is the most massive wave over the last 20 years. One cannot help but wonder if the boiling tension on the streets amidst a volatile environment is a prelude to a supercell democratic storm determined to drive social change.

In response to this attack, civil society organizations, freethinking individuals, diplomatic missions, and international organizations in Montenegro and the region have expressed their solidarity and raised their voices. This case highlights the pressing need for stronger support for civil society's efforts towards EU integration, firmly anchored in progressive, green, and gender-sensitive values.

The new movement “Europe Now!” (PES) has garnered the most votes in the snap parliamentary elections in Montenegro,  with around 25.6 percent. Voter turnout was less than 57 percent. Difficult coalition negotiations are expected.

On April 28, Montenegro got a new, minority Government. Prime Minister Dritan Abazović’s cabinet, however, is one of the largest in the country’s recent, three-decades long history of multi-party democracy.

With everything that awaits us in the coming years, we must find a spark of optimism in the success achieved by the “Moramo” coalition and in the fact that self-organization and political action of individuals in Serbia is still possible. We can either join in and support that fight in the new cycle of the poisonous rule of Aleksandar Vučić, or keep being hostages to his politics. 

Serbia has been wandering about in terms of both foreign policy and security for over 30 years now. Officials say Serbia supports Ukraine's territorial sovereignty and integrity, but it only joined in on the condemnation of Russia at multilateral forums.

The Heinrich  Böll Foundation, as an organization affiliated with the German Greens, feels a responsibility to respond to the unauthorized use of the symbols of the German Greens by a recently renamed political party in Serbia.

Looking back at 16 years of Angela Merkel's Balkan policy, there were ups and downs, but the objective of eventually bringing Serbia closer to the EU has failed. It is now high time for a fresh, new start to Germany‘s relationship to the key enabler or blocker of a European future for the region - Serbia.

Can two people of the same sex get married in Kosovo? – The never-ending question that continues to raise dust for years on end. In principle, the right to marry and have a family is protected and guaranteed by contemporary constitutions as a fundamental right for everyone. The Constitution of Kosovo is no exception in this regard, explicitly or implicitly recognizing same-sex marriages.

Today’s Montenegro, has slowly started to understand and accept diversity, outside of what is traditionally seen as a “minority” - religious, national, ethnic, etc. Thus, talk about LGBT people began picking up pace slowly and quietly as early as 2002, at first within institutions of the system, under the influence of reform processes and the international community.