Chinese President Xi Jinping has concluded a five-day tour of Europe, after visiting France, Serbia and Hungary, where he touted Beijing’s vision of a multipolar world and held talks on trade, investments and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron feted Xi with gifts of luxury bottles of cognac and a trip to a childhood haunt in the Pyrenees mountains, while in Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic organised a grand welcome, gathering a crowd of tens of thousands of people, who chanted “China, China” and waved Chinese flags in front of the Serbian presidential palace.
In Hungary, President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban also rolled out the red carpet for Xi, receiving him with military honours at the Hungarian presidential palace.
The tour marked Xi’s first trip to Europe in five years and came at a symbolic time for the three nations.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France, and the 75th of those with Hungary. The trip also coincided with the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during Serbia’s war on Kosovo.
Xi’s main aim with the visit, analysts say, was pushing for a world where the United States is less dominant, and controlling damage to China’s ties with the European Union as trade tensions grow amid a threat of European tariffs and a probe into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles that European officials say are hurting local industries.
People waving Chinese and Serbian flags gathered outside the Palace of Serbia during a welcome ceremony for Chinese President Xi Jinping in Belgrade [Dimitrije Goll/ Serbia’s Presidential press service via AFP]
Here are the main takeaways.
No concessions on trade, Russia-Ukraine
Throughout Xi’s two-day trip to France, Macron pressed the Chinese leader to address Beijing’s trade imbalances with the EU – which stood at a deficit of 292 billion euros ($314.72bn) last year – and to use his influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
Macron invited European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to join his talks with Xi, to underline European unity on calls for greater access to the Chinese market and to address the bloc’s complaints regarding its excess capacity in electric vehicles and green technology. The pair also pushed Xi to control the sales of products and technologies to Russia that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
But the Chinese leader appeared to have offered few concessions.
Xi denied there was a Chinese “overcapacity problem” and only reiterated his calls for negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Xi, who is expected to host Putin in China later this month, said he called on all parties to restart contact and dialogue.
“Both trade and Russia are non-negotiable for China. Macron could not achieve anything [on those fronts],” said Shirley Yu, political economist and senior fellow at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom.
But she suggested the visit furthered Macron’s personal relationship with Xi, one that is part of the French leader’s strategy to make France a crucial partner to all emerging world powers.
“Macron shares one vision in common with Xi, which is that the US hegemony – including the quest for Europe’s allegiance to the US’s foreign policy – must yield to a multipolar global order by accommodating the rising powers’ interests and concerns,” Yu told Al Jazeera. Macron’s recent visits to India and Brazil also “prove that France wants to stay at the forefront of that global shift,” she added.
And despite the lack of concessions, French officials told the Reuters news agency that the visit allowed Macron to pass on messages on Ukraine and would allow for more open discussions in the future.
As for Xi, Macron’s talk of European “strategic autonomy” helps further the Chinese leader’s vision for a multipolar world. And while there was no reconciliation on the economic front, Xi’s visit would help with “damage limitation” wrote Yu Jie, a senior research fellow on China at the Chatham House, a United Kingdom-based think tank. It could help prevent ties with Europe from worsening even more, as they have with the US, she said, amid the threat of European tariffs on Chinese goods and a probe into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, right, address the press after their official talks in the Carmelite Monastery, the prime minister’s office, at Buda Castle district in Budapest, Hungary on May 9, 2024 [Pool via AFP]
In contrast to Xi’s stop in France, his visits to EU candidate country Serbia and EU member state Hungary were marked by pledges to deepen political ties and expand investments in eastern and central Europe.
In Belgrade, Vucic, the Serbian president, signed up to Xi’s vision of a “global community of shared future” and the two leaders hailed an “ironclad partnership” while also announcing that a free trade deal signed between their two countries last year would come into effect on July 1.
Other economic promises included the purchases of new Chinese trains, new air links and increased Serbian imports.
Yu, the political economist at LSE, said Xi’s visit to Belgrade on the 25th anniversary of NATO’s bombing of the Chinese embassy in the city, was meant to make “clear that China and Russia share a common objection to NATO’s east expansion”. It also “reveals that there should be no illusion that China will bow down to Western pressure to curtail economic partnership with Russia,” she said.
In Budapest, Xi pledged more investments in transport and energy, including the construction of a high-speed railway connecting the capital city centre to its airport and cooperation in the nuclear sector, according to Hungarian officials. Xi also promised to move forward on a $2.1bn project to connect the Hungarian capital with the Serbian capital.
The project, most of which is financed by a loan from China, is part of the Belt and Road Initiative, the ambitious infrastructure plan launched by Xi a decade ago to connect Asia with Africa and Europe.
All this demonstrates Xi’s keenness “to reintroduce the Cold War ‘Second World’ as a significant geostrategic player,” said Yu. “With China’s economic support, the periphery of the EU can become more significant European economic players, boasting higher speed of growth and delivering high-tech supply chains,” she said.
To China, Hungary serves as a gateway to the EU trade bloc and Yu added that Beijing’s growing partnership with Hungary could also “potentially deem the EU’s sanctions on Chinese EVs ineffective”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is on his first trip to Europe in five years, which is likely to be dominated by Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as economic strains between Beijing and Brussels.
The first stop will be France, with Xi due to hold talks in Paris on May 6 with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, before travelling south to the Pyrenees.
After that, he will travel to Serbia and Hungary, two countries that have maintained close ties with Russia despite its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
According to Matt Geracim, the assistant director of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, the Chinese president is travelling to Europe with three goals: “repairing relations in Europe damaged by China’s support for Russia’s war on Ukraine, blunting the EU’s economic security agenda vis-a-vis China, and showcasing Beijing’s strong ties with its stalwart partners Serbia and Hungary.”
Here is all you need to know about Xi’s European tour, which continues until Friday.
The big picture
Beijing and Paris are marking 60 years since diplomatic relations were established, with France the first Western country to formally recognise the People’s Republic of China on January 27, 2024.
But the trip also comes amid a deteriorating global security climate, with the war in Ukraine now into its third year and at least 34,683 Palestinians killed in Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
France has said those two conflicts, particularly Ukraine where Beijing has professed neutrality but not condemned Moscow for its full-scale invasion, will feature prominently in the talks.
“Exchanges will focus on international crises, first and foremost the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East,” the Elysee Palace said in a statement ahead of the visit last week.
Macron has recently emerged as one of the most hawkish of the EU leaders on the continent’s security, and he will be urging Xi to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. In an interview with the Economist newspaper published last week, the French president argued the war was existential for Europe.
“If Russia wins in Ukraine there will be no security in Europe,” he said. “Who can pretend that Russia will stop there?” What security would there be, he asked, for neighbouring countries: Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and others?
To underline the unity of the European position, von der Leyen will also join Monday’s discussions, which are due to get under way just after 11am (09:00 GMT).
As well as the Ukraine war, Europe is also concerned about Chinese business practices and has initiated an investigation into China’s subsidies for electric vehicle manufacturers, amid concerns such payments are undermining competition and harming European companies.
The more than two-year-long war in Ukraine will be high on the agenda when Macron meets Xi [Ukraine Patrol Police via AP]
Macron told the Economist that he would also convey to Xi why Europe needs to safeguard its own manufacturers and industries.
Ahead of Xi’s departure last week, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Beijing was ready to “work with France and the EU to take this meeting as an opportunity to make the China-EU relations more strategic, stable, constructive and mutually beneficial, promote steady and sustained progress in China-EU relations, and contribute to the prosperity of both China and Europe and a peaceful world.”
Following Monday’s summit, Marcon and his wife, Brigitte, will host Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to a state banquet.
On Tuesday, Macron will take the Chinese leader to the Pyrenees mountains, where he made regular trips to see his grandmother as a child. The two couples are also expected to take a cable car up to the summit of the 2,877-metre (9,439 ft) Pic du Midi, a dark sky reserve.
After wrapping his trip in France, Xi will head to Serbia where he will arrive in Belgrade on the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy for talks with President Aleksandar Vucic. Three people were killed when Washington said it accidentally struck the compound during the NATO air campaign against Serb forces occupying Kosovo, in an event that triggered outrage and protests in China.
China has since emerged as the biggest single source of investment in Serbia, which is not a member of the EU, and prior to the trip Lin, the MOFA spokesperson, referred to the two countries’ ties as “ironclad”.
“The bombing remains a significant topic for Chinese officials, who use it to support narratives that question the values of liberal democracies,” Stefan Vladisavljev, programme director at Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society wrote in an online analysis. “For Serbia, the visit presents an opportunity to strengthen its position as China’s main partner in the Western Balkans.”
Xi Jinping will arrive in Belgrade some 25 years since US bombs struck the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade [Marko Djurica/Reuters]
Xi will then travel on May 8 to Budapest, the final stop on his European tour.
There he will meet Hungarian President Viktor Orban, the most Russia-friendly leader in the EU.
Hungary, whose policies have raised concern among other EU members, has become more closely aligned with Beijing and Moscow and recently signed a security cooperation agreement with China that allows Chinese police officers to work in areas where there are large populations of ethnic Chinese or which are popular with Chinese tourists, according to Zoltan Feher is a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
Reports on such Chinese police stations have raised alarm in other parts of Europe, particularly among exiles and dissidents.
Hungary is also part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which it joined in 2015, and the two men are likely to discuss the ongoing construction of the high-speed rail between Budapest and Belgrade.
Ukraine war
Macron has spoken increasingly about the need to develop Europe’s own security architecture rather than rely on NATO and the US.
He has even suggested that France would be willing to send its troops to Ukraine, if Russia broke through the front lines and Kyiv asked for assistance.
China has long maintained it is neutral in the war, but Beijing and Moscow have deepened their ties since the full-scale invasion began, and Putin is expected to visit China this month.
Macron will be hoping to persuade Xi of the need for China to get more closely involved in efforts to secure peace as Switzerland organises a peace conference next month to discuss a 10-point plan put forward by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the end of 2022.
The Swiss say they have already invited more than 160 delegations, but it is not clear whether Beijing, which has also put forward a proposal for peace talks and deployed its own envoy in the region, will attend.
Russia has repeatedly dismissed the process, and insists a precursor for negotiations is that Kyiv give up the 20 percent of its territory that Russia currently occupies.
“We must continue to engage China, which is objectively the international player with the greatest leverage to change Moscow’s mind,” the French newspaper Le Monde quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying.
Human rights
Chinese state media have been reporting breathlessly on Xi’s arrival in Paris; the streets decorated with Chinese and French flags and groups of Chinese nationals welcoming their president.
But campaigners for Tibet and Xinjiang, where the United Nations says China may have committed crimes against humanity in holding some 1 million ethnic Uighur Muslims in re-education camps, were also out on the streets of the capital.
The EU imposed targeted sanctions on certain Chinese officials and companies over Xinjiang in March 2021, prompting anger in Beijing.
Delighted to be at a protest in Paris “welcoming” Xi Jinping’s visit
Amazing to see global solidarity among Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers and many others in pursuit of freedom from the CCP
Human Rights Watch says while the French president did not raise the issue publicly on his visit to China last year, he should do so while Xi is in Paris and call for the release of those arbitrarily detained or imprisoned including Ilham Tohti, an Uighur economist who was awarded the Sakharov Prize, Europe’s most prominent human rights award in 2019.
The human rights organisation said Macron should also raise the issue of Tibet, where some 1 million Tibetan children are being placed in boarding schools and separated from their language and culture, and Hong Kong, once the most free territory in China but now subject to two draconian security laws.
“President Macron should make it clear to Xi Jinping that Beijing’s crimes against humanity come with consequences for China’s relations with France,” Maya Wang, the acting China director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “France’s silence and inaction on human rights would only embolden the Chinese government’s sense of impunity for its abuses, further fuelling repression at home and abroad.”
On April 30, Macron was pictured at the Elysee Palace with Penpa Tsering, the president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, on the sidelines of a ceremony to honour former Senator Andre Gattolin, a longtime supporter Tibet, who was awarded the Legion d’Honneur.
Tibetans demonstrate in Paris on Sunday as Xi Jinping arrived for a state visit to France [Thomas Padilla/AP Photo]
Penpa Tsering presented the French president with a signed photo of his 2016 meeting with the Dalai Lama and “urged him not to forget Tibet”, according to a report the Central Tibetan Administration.
“We understand that the agenda between the two presidents will be dense given the many international crises such as in Ukraine and in the Middle East, but this must not be done at the expense of exchanges on human rights, which are in a deplorable state throughout the country as well as in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, where a latent conflict has been going on for over 60 years and poses a threat to regional and international security,” Vincent Metten, the EU policy director for the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.
In Freedom House’s 2024 report on Freedom in the World, Tibet’s overall score was zero out of 100; the lowest in at least eight years.
Maryse Artiguelong, the vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said: “The conflict in Ukraine highlights the threat posed to international order and security by authoritarian regimes such as Russia and the People’s Republic of China. Their aggressive foreign policies and repressive domestic policies are inextricably linked: Anyone who does not oppose China’s human rights violations risks one day facing its aggressive foreign policy.”
Before dawn, 78-year-old Vukosava Radivojevic prepared breakfast for her husband and then walked to guard a barricade in her village in eastern Serbia to stop trucks from entering an open-pit copper mine that residents say is contaminating the land and water.
Radivojevic is among two dozen women who, since January, have taken shifts by day and night on a small bridge in Krivelj to protest against the mine, run by a subsidiary of China’s Zijin Mining, that dominates the surrounding countryside and encroaches on their homes.
The women are fighting to persuade the company to relocate their village away from what they describe as an incessant din, shaking and pollution.
Zijin has already relocated many of the villagers. But the majority of those who remain are Vlachs – Orthodox Christians who have preserved their own language and customs through centuries. They want to move as one.
“We are forced to block the road because we are poisoned, everything is polluted, we can’t grow vegetables any more,” Radivojevic said as she stood at the blockade.
Zijin’s subsidiary, Serbia Zijin Copper, acknowledged the problems, which it said it inherited from a local company when it took over operations in 2018.
Mining began in Krivelj in the 1970s when Serbia was still part of Yugoslavia. The concentration of sulphur dioxide in the air became so high that it burned holes in women’s nylon tights, residents said.
Standards have since improved, but production has quadrupled since Zijin took over, meaning more trucks and more dust, they said.
The landscape is scarred by piles of mining waste. Lines of orange trucks snake up the brown valley. The walls of houses are cracked from tremors caused by underground explosions, residents said.
The number of schoolchildren has dropped by two-thirds, retired teacher Aleksa Radonjic said, as young families have moved away.
The barricade, erected in January, became a symbol of Krivelj’s defiance. Over time it turned into a second home for the women: the inside was heated by a wood stove and had a television. Neighbours stopped by with snacks and coffee. Sometimes dogs kept them company.
“One day I was standing in the centre of the village, and I kept seeing truck after truck driving through. The small bridge was swinging under their weight,” Radivojevic said.
“And then I told my granddaughter, something needs to be done.”
Housewife Marija Bufanovic, 53, was among the first to build the barricade. “There is no life here,” she said. “We want to move together.”
Meanwhile, villagers discuss where they may end up. The company has proposed an area near another Zijin mine, said community leader Jasna Tomic.
“We want that new village to be called Krivelj as well. Of course, there will be no river there, but we want to move the church, the library and the school.”
According to a study commissioned by the company and published in December, Krivelj’s small river is polluted with heavy metals. Increased quantities of lead, arsenic and cadmium were found in the soil.
“The site suffered from severe direct emissions of gases and wastewater, resulting in highly polluted surroundings including air, rivers, and soil,” the company said in a statement to the Reuters news agency.
It said it has invested more than $100m to reduce the environmental impact, including improving wastewater recycling.
This week, Zijin agreed to stop driving large trucks through the village, Tomic said, in a sign the women have had some success. Residents temporarily lifted the blockade to allow the company to complete some work.
Throughout Israel’s war on Gaza, Serbia has sought to publicly avoid political involvement in the conflict, with Belgrade maintaining a relatively neutral position aimed at preserving relationships.
Serbia has ties with Israel and, at the same time, does not want to present itself on the international stage as undermining Palestinian interests, analysts told Al Jazeera.
Understanding the Balkan country’s unique perspective on Israel-Palestine requires some understanding of 20th-century history.
Serbs and Jewish Israelis share an identity as Holocaust victims. Belgrade is also linked to the Palestinians and Arab states through Yugoslavia’s historic role in the Non-Alignment Movement. And in 1967, Yugoslavia showed solidarity with Egypt and Syria by severing diplomatic relations with Israel and never restoring them until Yugoslavia’s collapse.
Since Yugoslavia’s breakup in the early 1990s, Serbia has been proud of its friendly relations with Israel as well as the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Belgrade has a record of voting in favour of Palestine at the United Nations and supporting a two-state solution.
Serbia sends weapons to Israel
But Serbian-Israeli ties have grown across numerous domains in recent years, and appear ever warmer in wartime.
On Wednesday, Balkan Insight reported that Serbia’s main state-owned arms trader, Yugoimport-SDPR, exported weapons worth 14 million euros ($15.2m) to Israel last month, citing customs data.
On March 12, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) reported that Serbia made at least two major arms or ammunition shipments to Israel since the October 2023 Hamas attack “despite a veil of secrecy covering the deals”.
Igor Novakovic, research director of the International and Security Affairs Centre (ISAC), told Al Jazeera that these shipments were likely part of a previous arrangement.
“The secrecy clause is there probably to prevent spoiling of the image of Serbia, in a sense that it could be interpreted as support to the Israeli war against Hamas,” he said.
Israel began its latest and deadliest onslaught of Gaza after October 7, when Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs the densely populated strip, attacked southern Israel, killing 1,139 people and taking more than 200 Israelis captive. Some captives have since been freed, others have died, and dozens remain held. In Gaza, more than 33,000 people have been killed by Israel, among them almost 14,000 children.
In recent weeks, world leaders have sharply criticised Israel’s military conduct as the civilian death toll rises while its stated aim of crushing Hamas remains elusive.
Serbia has a history of selling arms to Israel.
Noting that Belgrade was a top supplier of arms to Israel – second only to Washington – during the 2004-07 period, Lily Lynch, a foreign affairs writer who covers the Western Balkans, found the BIRN report “unsurprising”.
“The news is indicative of little more than Belgrade’s complete absence of any principles, values, or ideology, along with a willingness to sell arms to anyone without ever asking any questions,” she told Al Jazeera.
“As an added bonus, Serbia’s arms sales – not just to Israel but to Ukraine – also send a silent but powerful message to important people in Washington, whether [lobbyists], diplomats, or lawmakers, which is: ‘We are an essential partner to the West in the Balkans; while our neighbours can offer rhetorical support to Ukraine and Israel, we offer something concrete’,” she added.
‘Restoration of friendly relations’
In 2020, Serbia’s relationship with Israel entered a difficult period.
At that time, the administration of then-President Donald Trump sought to “normalise” Serbia-Kosovo relations while also pushing for Serbia to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and add Israel to the list of countries recognising Kosovo’s independence.
Belgrade explained that Israeli recognition of Kosovo would result in Serbia’s embassy staying in Tel Aviv, which is what occurred after Israel recognised Kosovo’s independence. Belgrade was so upset that it downgraded diplomatic relations with Israel.
Last year, however, Serbia and Israel began mending fences.
In July 2023, Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited Belgrade as Tel Aviv’s first chief diplomat to do so in 14 years. During his trip, Cohen declared that his country’s relationship with Serbia was “back on track” as he lauded Israel’s “closest ally” in the Balkans.
“Since October 2023, Serbia has continued to pursue its existing policy aimed at the restoration of friendly relations with Israel,” explained Lynch.
“Serbia’s foreign policy towards Israel has been friendly but also somewhat restrained. Belgrade has certainly been more muted about its support for Israel than most Western countries,” she added.
Serbia’s efforts to keep its positive relationship with Israel low-profile amid the Gaza war reflect Belgrade’s “desire to maintain friendly relations with the so-called ‘global south’ where Belgrade counts on the support of the many countries who still refuse to recognise Kosovo’s independence”, according to Lynch.
“When the Hamas attack happened, Serbia condemned it and qualified it as a terrorist act. However, Belgrade was careful with words and did not want to choose either [side] in the conflict politically. [Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic] even stated that both Palestine and Israel are Serbia’s friends and that Belgrade does not want to be politically involved,” ISAC’s Novakovic told Al Jazeera.
Belgrade’s reaction to the Hamas-led incursion and the subsequent Israeli war on Gaza has been “based on [Serbia’s] traditionally good relations – both with Israel and Palestine”, Bodo Weber, senior associate of the Democratization Policy Council, told Al Jazeera.
“Through its voting performance at the UN, Belgrade on the one hand has outright condemned Hamas’s attack. On the other hand, Serbia subsequently sided with Western and other countries in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, rejected by Israel, while at the same time intensifying contacts between Belgrade and Tel Aviv in order to maintain the good relations.”
Meanwhile, Serbia and other Balkan countries are aware of the potential security and geopolitical risks that could arise from the war in Gaza.
According to Vuk Vuksanovic, senior researcher at the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, potential vulnerabilities include the possible “radicalisation” of Southeastern Europe’s Muslim communities, the overspill of tensions from the Middle East to the region, and another refugee crisis.
He cited the “possibility” of attacks during games in which Israeli teams participate.
“As an illustration, two Israeli football clubs should have also had their European games in Serbia, but this arrangement was cancelled, probably due to security reasons,” he said.
Will Serbia move even closer to Israel?
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is not an ideological leader.
He is known for opportunistically shifting Belgrade’s foreign policy in response to international developments.
Four years ago, Vucic addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual conference in Washington four years ago to strengthen Serbia’s standing in the US capital.
“Serbia was using Israel to gain access to Israeli lobby groups and, by extension, get closer to the Trump administration,” said Vuksanovic. “There is no doubt that Serbia is again trying to get Israeli protection in Washington and use it as a shortcut for a stronger partnership with the US under [a potential] new Trump presidency.”
If Trump wins the US presidential election in November, Belgrade’s ties with Tel Aviv could strengthen.
“If Serbia-Israel relations do deepen in the period ahead, I would guess that this would have … to do with the anticipation of a new Trump administration, and the concurrent strengthening of ties among the global populist right, which includes fervently pro-Israel countries like [Viktor] Orban’s Hungary, one of Serbia’s closest allies,” said Lynch.
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Protesters accuse President Aleksandar Vucic’s ruling party of fraud and demand the December 17 election be annulled.
Thousands of people have gathered in Serbia’s capital in the biggest protest yet over this month’s parliamentary and municipal elections, accusing President Aleksandar Vucic’s governing party of orchestrating a fraud and asking the results be annulled.
The large rally in central Belgrade on Saturday capped nearly two weeks of street protests against reported widespread irregularities during the December 17 vote that were noted by international observers as well.
The governing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) was declared the election winner with 46.72 percent of the votes, according to preliminary results from the state election commission.
But the main opposition alliance, Serbia Against Violence, has claimed the election was stolen, particularly in the vote for the Belgrade city authorities.
Protesters waving Serbian flags and holding a banner reading “We do not accept” cheered Marinika Tepic, a leader of the Serbia Against Violence alliance, who has been on hunger strike since December 18.
“These elections must be annulled,” a frail-looking Tepic, who came to the stage with the help of two colleagues, told the protesters gathered in front of the landmark Moskva hotel.
Serbian opposition leader Marinika Tepic, centre, who was on hunger strike for 13 days, appears on the stage as several thousands attend the opposition rally [Andrej Isakovic/AFP]
Tepic’s health reportedly has been jeopardised and she was expected to be hospitalised after appearing at the rally.
Serbia Against Violence has led daily protests since December 17, demanding a rerun of the vote. Tensions have soared following violent incidents and arrests of opposition supporters at a protest last weekend.
The protest was supported by students’ organisations and by an initiative gathering public figures including prominent intellectuals and actors dubbed ProGlas, or “pro vote”.
Serbia Against Violence came second in the election with 23.56 percent of the vote. The Socialist Party of Serbia was third with 6.56 percent.
Another opposition politician, Radomir Lazovic, urged the international community “not to stay silent” and set up a commission to look into the irregularities and pressure authorities to hold a new election that’s free and fair.
After the speeches, participants marched by the headquarters of the state electoral commission towards Serbia’s Constitutional Court that will ultimately rule on electoral complaints.
‘Doctoring of the people’s will’
A protester from Belgrade, Rajko Dimitrijevic, told the Associated Press he came to the rally because he felt “humiliation” and the “doctoring of the people’s will”.
Ivana Grobic, also from Belgrade, said she had always joined protests “because I want a better life, I want the institutions of this country to do their job.”
The opposition has called for an international probe of the vote after representatives of several global watchdogs reported multiple irregularities, including cases of vote-buying and ballot box stuffing.
Local election monitors also alleged that voters from across Serbia and neighbouring countries were registered and bused in to cast ballots in Belgrade.
Vucic and his party have rejected the reports as “fabricated”.
Saturday’s gathering symbolically was organised at a central area in Belgrade that in the early 1990s was the scene of demonstrations against strongman Slobodan Milosevic’s warmongering and undemocratic policies.
Critics nowadays have said that Vucic, who was an ultranationalist ally of Milosevic in the 1990s, has reinstated that autocracy in Serbia since coming to power in 2012, by taking full control over the media and all state institutions.
Vucic has said the elections were fair and his party won. He accused the opposition of inciting violence at protests, with the aim of overthrowing the government under instructions from abroad, which opposition leaders have denied.
Serbia is formally seeking membership in the European Union, but the Balkan nation has maintained close ties with Moscow and has refused to join Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian officials have extended full support to Vucic in the crackdown against the protesters and backed his claims that the vote was free and fair.
President Aleksandar Vucic condemns ‘attempted violent takeover’ amid protests over alleged election fraud.
Riot police in Serbia have fired tear gas and pepper spray at opposition supporters demanding the annulment of elections marred by claims of widespread fraud.
Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm Belgrade City Hall on Sunday evening during demonstrations against the results of parliamentary and local elections on December 17, which international observers say were marred by vote buying, ballot stuffing and the improper influence of President Aleksandar Vucic.
Opposition supporters, some chanting, “Vucic thief” and “Vucic is Putin”, used flagpoles and rocks to break windows as they tried to break into the capital’s administrative building but were repelled by riot police.
Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) were returned to power with a parliamentary majority after winning nearly 47 percent of the votes, according to preliminary results announced by electoral authorities.
The centre-left opposition alliance Serbia Against Violence received 23.56 percent of the vote, followed by the Socialist Party of Serbia with 6.56 percent, according to electoral authorities.
Serbia Against Violence has claimed it was the rightful winner, especially in Belgrade, where there were reports of non-residents being recruited to vote.
In a letter earlier this week, Serbia Against Violence told European Union institutions, officials and member nations that it would not recognise the outcome and called on the bloc to do the same as well as to initiate an investigation.
“Police are everywhere, also on the roofs. It is obvious that they do not want to recognise [the] election results,” said Serbia Against Violence leader Nebojsa Zelenovic. “We will continue with our fight.”
Vucic has rejected opposition calls to rerun the vote, blasting claims of irregularities as blatant “lies”.
In an address aired by pro-government Pink TV on Sunday, Vucic said the protests were “not a revolution” and those seeking to destabilise the state would not succeed.
“This was an attempted violent takeover of the state institutions of the Republic of Serbia,” Vucic said, while claiming there was evidence that “everything was prepared in advance” with assistance from abroad.
The Serbian leader said more than 35 people were arrested and more would follow.
“Nobody has the right to destroy our house, to destroy the property of our country and our citizens, not to mention causing serious injuries to our police officers,” Vucic said.
Vucic and his party were rattled by antigovernment protests in May, which began as demonstrations against back-to-back mass shootings that killed 18 people, including nine children, before morphing into a broader antigovernment movement taking aim at issues such as rising inflation and perceived government corruption.
Ruling populists claim sweeping victory in the parliamentary election, which was marred by reports of significant irregularities.
Exit polls say the ruling right-wing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of President Aleksandar Vucic is in the lead in a snap parliamentary election widely regarded as a referendum on his government.
According to projections by the pollsters Ipsos and CeSID on Sunday evening, the SNS won 47 percent of the vote and is expected to hold about 130 seats in the 250-member assembly.
The main opposition Serbia Against Violence (SPN) alliance, a centrist coalition vying to unseat the populists who have ruled the Balkan state since 2012, won about 23 percent of votes, said the projections.
The projections are based on a partial count of a representative sample of polling stations. Official results are set to be announced late on Monday.
Serbs cast their vote at a polling station in the town of Raca [Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters]
The election did not include the presidency but governing authorities backed by the dominant pro-government media have run the campaign as a referendum on Vucic.
Two mass shootings in May, resulting in 18 deaths, including nine elementary school students, led to protests that shook Vucic and the SNS’s decade-long grip on power.
The discontent was made worse by rising inflation, which hit 8 percent in November.
Opposition parties and rights watchdogs also accuse Vucic and the SNS of bribing voters, stifling media freedom, violence against opponents, corruption and ties with organised crime.
Vucic and his allies deny the allegations.
“My job was to do everything in my power to secure an absolute majority in the parliament,” Vucic told reporters on Sunday as he celebrated what he said was the SNS’s victory.
Allegations of irregularities
The elections were marred by reports of major irregularities, both during a tense campaign and on the voting day.
CeSID and Ipsos, which jointly monitored Sunday’s vote, reported irregularities including organised arrivals of voters at polling stations, photographing of ballots and procedural errors.
The state Election Commission said election monitors from the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) watchdog were attacked in northern Serbia.
“There were a lot of irregularities,” said opposition leader Radomir Lazovic, citing alleged “vote buying” and “falsification of signatures”.
“We may have had the dirtiest electoral process,” he added.
Posts on social media also fuelled rumours that the government was allowing unregistered voters from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina to cast ballots illegally in the election.
Prime Minister Ana Brnabic dismissed the claims, accusing the reports of spreading chaos.
While President Aleksandar Vucic is not on the ballot, the contest is seen as a referendum on his government.
Serbians have begun voting in parliamentary and local elections that will test the strength of the country’s governing party amid unrest over high inflation, corruption, and gun violence.
The snap elections, announced last month, will determine a new government for Serbia’s 250-seat parliament, as well as elect local councils in most municipalities.
President Aleksandar Vucic’s ruling right-wing Serbian Progressive Party (SPS), ahead by double-digits in the latest opinion polls, is widely expected to retain its rule in parliament.
However, the party faces challenging municipal races in the capital, Belgrade, particularly from a loose coalition of opposition parties and candidates running under the “Serbia Against Violence” banner.
While Vucic is not on the ballot, the contest is largely seen as a referendum on his government and rule.
‘Serbia Against Violence’
Vucic and his SPS party have been rattled this year by antigovernment protests that brought hundreds of thousands to the streets and led to the formation of the “Serbia Against Violence” alliance challenging his party’s rule.
The demonstrations were first sparked by back-to-back mass shootings in May that killed 18 people, including nine children.
But they quickly morphed into broader antigovernment rallies, with critics expressing anger over rising inflation and perceived government corruption.
Vucic has repeatedly dismissed his critics and the protests as a foreign plot, warning that Serbia would be directionless without his leadership.
“It’s not about me leaving power, but about them destroying everything,” he told supporters at a recent rally.
“It would take us 20 years to fix everything … That’s why we’ll beat them more convincingly than ever.”
Wall-to-wall coverage
Vucic has been omnipresent in the run-up to Sunday’s vote – plastered on billboards and skyscrapers and the focus of wall-to-wall coverage on news channels.
Supporters of President Vucic gather in front of a banner with his image, at the Stark Arena in Belgrade, December 2 [Andrej Isakovic/AFP]
To blunt the hard edges of rising prices ahead of the polls, Vucic unleashed a barrage of state spending – increasing pensions and handing out cash to the elderly.
The president has also promised to double average monthly salaries in the coming years while also upping pensions.
Vucic has used his more than a decade in power to consolidate control over the levers of power, including de facto control over the media.
Opposition parties and rights watchdogs accuse Vucic and the SNS of voter bribery, stifling media freedoms, violence against opponents, corruption, and ties with organised crime. He and his allies deny these allegations.
The contest comes less than two years after the last round of presidential and parliamentary polls, which saw Vucic and the SNS tighten their grip on power.
Serbia’s next government will have to navigate a series of challenges at home and abroad, especially as it seeks European Union membership.
As it continues accession talks, the EU is pressuring Serbia to normalise ties with Kosovo, its former predominantly Albanian province that declared independence in 2008, and introduce sanctions on Russia. At home, Serbia is being asked to stamp out corruption and organised crime, as well as to liberalise its economy.
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