Serbia’s populist leader has consolidated his power in an election shadowed by massacre and electoral fraud

Several opposition parties take advantage of the last minutes of the campaign to attract voters to Republic Square, the main meeting place in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Behind them is huge new graffiti: “The only genocide committed in the Balkans was against the Serbs.” And just above the graffiti, stenciled, are the many faces of convicted war criminal and genocidaire Ratko Mladic, the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ and responsible for the Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered.

Serbia held local elections this Sunday in dozens of municipalities and large cities. In Belgrade, the jewel in the crown, it is a forced electoral recount after allegations of fraud during last December’s elections and international pressure – including from the EU. After the ruling party of President Aleksandar Vučić (SNS, member of the European PP) gained full control in the 2020 elections, the opposition now hopes to send a first message of strength, but Vučić has won again in practically all municipalities: the party in government says it won all but four of the 80 municipalities where voting took place.

In the December elections, the opposition presented itself as a united coalition, but in this new call that union has been broken as some groups have decided to boycott the elections because of what they consider to be fraudulent and unfair elections. The OSCE observation mission concluded in its December report that “although (the elections) offer voters a political choice, they have been dominated by the decisive involvement of the president, which, combined with the systemic advantages of the ruling party, has created “unfair” conditions.” “Fundamental freedoms have been widely respected in the campaign, but it has been marked by aggressive rhetoric, bias in the media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public funds.”

“Nothing has changed in all these months. It has gotten worse,” says Nemanja Stiplja, staring at a screen set up in an old warehouse on the banks of the Danube, where the opposition coalition, ‘I want to fight’, is now tracking the results. Stiplja is a political scientist, founder of the Centre for Contemporary Politics and editor of the European Western Balkans Portal. The whole city is dotted with posters of the populist president who has ruled the country since 2012, and even the list bears not his name but that of his party: Aleksandar Vučić. The president is omnipresent.

Vučić has used the UN General Assembly resolution of May 23, establishing the International Day for the Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide, to unite his voters and stir nationalist passions in the streets. The text condemns the denial or glorification of figures like Mladic, but Vučić wanted to turn it into an attack on the people of Serbia, although the text does not even mention the country by name. A few days before the election, the president flooded the capital with advertising posters bearing the slogan: “We are not a people who commit genocide.” The same message can also be seen on Serbia’s tallest building on the riverbank.

“This will be the most difficult day since I became president,” Vučić said before flying to New York to attend the General Assembly vote, where he entered wearing a Serbian flag in protest. This narrative has allowed him to position himself as the country’s biggest defender among mainstream media outlets – Vučić controls the most watched television network in the country, thanks to a deliberate strategy to alienate the few independent media outlets.

For the opposition, one of the big issues is the controversial project handed to Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to build offices and luxury apartments on the historic buildings of the Defense Ministry destroyed in the NATO bombing in 1999. Kushner himself and Serbian officials have confirmed the agreement and even the US has shared photos of its plans on the spot that for 25 years has been an unofficial memorial and reminder of the NATO bombing. “It’s unbelievable. They destroyed it and now we give it to them,” says Nikola, a tour guide in the city, indignantly.

“They want to sell those historic buildings and erase traces of history as if nothing happened,” Borijan Sukovic, a candidate in the Belgrade municipality for the Ceni Promeni list, a social movement that has presented itself for the first time, tells ElDiario.es. He is up for election and has buildings as one of its central campaign themes. Next to him, in the Plaza de la República, are representatives of the Popular Party, another conservative opposition party. “We don’t really expect anything in this election. It’s not possible to beat Vučić at the moment. He is supported by the EU, Russia and China,” says Vladimir.

In addition to the coalition’s divisions, the opposition is facing a disintegrated electorate. “Vučić wants people to not be interested in politics and he has achieved that. Only he appears everywhere, his name is on the list, he announces the results and he has turned parliament into a place full of clowns,” says Stiplja. Indeed, many citizens in the capital did not even know what issue was being voted on on Sunday, but almost everyone knows about the UN General Assembly resolution.

Silence falls in the old warehouse on the banks of the Danube when the president comes out to announce the results. Vučić claims victory in practically all the municipalities at stake. It has an absolute majority in Belgrade and only two city neighborhoods are in dispute. Angry laughter is heard when he announces more than 90% in a small town near the border.

The first applause and the only joy of the night takes place in Nis, the country’s third city. The ruling party is the force with the most votes, but an alliance between an independent candidate and another opposition coalition could snatch the city from Vučinić. “From now on, Nis is a free city,” said Dragan Milić. Until that moment, it was not known whether the popular cardiologist was going to cooperate with the government or the opposition. “He has simply become the hero of the night,” says Sofia, a journalist who covers the elections from a warehouse that has become a refuge for the opposition and where there are hardly any journalists from the pro-government media.

Suddenly, everyone remembers that Nis was the first city to overthrow the authoritarian power of Slobodan Milosevic in 1996. Milosevic died in a cell in The Hague during a war crimes trial in 2006. Many of those present want to see an analogy in the long road to victory against the authoritarian and populist government of the current president. One of the young leaders of the Liberal Party, which is part of the opposition coalition, is optimistic: “I think this is the beginning of Vučinić’s defeat.”

Right after the politicians’ first press conference, a strong wind threatens to knock down the screen. Umbrellas and papers fly and the organization runs after them. Soon after, a strong lightning storm hits, forcing everyone to take shelter inside the warehouse. “Well, I guess this is quite symbolic,” joked one of the event’s organizers as she tried to quickly gather her belongings.