Political Culture and Dialogue

At the time of writing, a group of students from Novi Pazar were walking towards Novi Sad to join other citizens of Serbia on 1 November in paying tribute to the 16 victims of the tragedy that occurred exactly a year ago, when the concrete canopy at the Novi Sad railway station collapsed. This pilgrimage, which they describe as “not only an act of resistance, but also a pledge”, will last a symbolic sixteen days – one for each of the sixteen victims

The wave of anti-corruption protests that began at the end of 2024 is unprecedented in its scope in Serbia's democratic history. The ways students used popular digital platforms deserve credit for this.

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. 

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.  

The tactic of intimidating critics through constant and personal attacks is aimed at increasing the cost of public engagement of those who wish to criticize the government and thus discipline the public space.

The resolution on the Srebrenica genocide would have found its way onto the agenda no matter how Serbia behaved. It is also possible that some hypothetical Serbia with more dignity, one that has taken responsibility for victims, the past, and the future, would have agreed with the resolution.  

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!).

The Kosovo war of 25 years ago serves as a reminder that frozen conflicts and bilateral disputes cannot be swept under the rug for long. In the current geopolitical environment, they will blow up in Europe’s face          

The dirty campaign and heightened pressure are indirect evidence that the Serbian Progressive Party’s (SNS) ratings are in decline, which makes a change of government in Belgrade seem possible. The coalition Serbia Against Violence has presented the Progressives with a serious competitor for the first time, so the brunt of the campaign was borne by Aleksandar Vučić himself - even though he is not up for election.  

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 this far-ranging interview, our office director, Nino Lejava talks to NIN Award winning author and director of the KROKODIL independent cultural center, Vladimir Arsenijević, about the historical and political foundations of Serbia's current geopolitical as well as cultural position with regard to its immediate neighbors, as well as Europe.

The need for practitioners and history promoters to do historical work “beyond the walls of the traditional classroom” is constantly growing. One of the main takeaways from our recent study trip to Berlin is that public and open discussions about the past and remembering are crucial for building future welfare.

Memorials are more than memories cast in basalt and concrete; as reference points, they are sources of veneration and contempt, at the mercy of political interests and deliberate acts of manipulation.

URA is a new, pro-European green political party that emerged in 2015 as a response from free individuals to the difficult political and economic situation in Montenegro, desiring to finally see democratic change and Montenegro standing among modern European countries with high standards of living.

The initiative originated as a local social movement which, both institutionally and extra-institutionally, by participating in public debates and civil protests, pointed out the harmfulness of Belgrade's water projects in order to develop over the years into a relevant political actor who advocates in accordance with the needs of its inhabitants.

The statements by state and city officials since the beginning of the construction works on the monument have made it clear that the monument is not only about Stefan Nemanja or medieval history. The war in Kosovo and the NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia in 1999 constitute key points of the official memory politics in which the current state actors invest incredible efforts. 

What happened in Skopje was a neoliberal appropriation of the public space. While everyone talks about the state expropriation of land in the city centre, coloured by a symbolic nationalist attack on all senses, the capitalist plunder of the public space throughout the city happened quietly - and that is the most important element of this endeavour.

The monument to the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty has been the subject of numerous criticisms, both because of its astronomical price and its over-dimensioned size, the location and controversial aesthetics. What does the monument to Stefan Nemanja say about the memory politics that the regime of Aleksandar Vučić wants to promote?