As Serbia grapples with one of its most volatile moments in recent political history, the warning signs of regime decay are hard to ignore. The recent student-led protests, marred by repression, nationalist hijacking, and social unrest, are more than a youth revolt—they are a reckoning. Sonja Biserko, the longtime chair of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, offers perhaps the clearest lens yet on the dangerous precipice upon which the country now stands. Her assessment is stark: President Aleksandar Vučić has lost legitimacy, and his regime’s survival tactics are driving Serbia closer to the abyss.
According to Biserko, Vučić has “crossed all red lines”—through systemic corruption, arrogant governance, and the degradation of basic civil dignity. No longer capable of commanding majority support, his regime now relies on intimidation and brute force to contain dissent. As she told Kosovo’s KTV, Vučić is increasingly deploying plainclothes criminals dressed in police uniforms to violently suppress student demonstrations. Protesters are beaten, detained, and in some cases seriously injured. This is not the architecture of a stable democracy—it is the anatomy of a political regime in decline.
The protest movement, which gained momentum after the controversial Vidovdan rally on June 28, began as a student call for justice and accountability. It has since morphed into a broader societal cry for democratic renewal. But nationalist actors have seized on the movement, using rhetoric about Kosovo, Montenegro, and Bosnia to divert public frustration into familiar scapegoats. Biserko warns that this is an echo of the Milošević era—a retrograde attempt to reclaim power through ethno-political myths. Yet the Serbian public, she argues, is increasingly immune to these tropes. Most Serbs, she believes, “know Kosovo is lost,” and understand that partition in Bosnia is neither viable nor tolerable.
Still, the threat of this nationalist regression remains serious, especially as Russia seeks to leverage Serbia’s crisis for its own geostrategic aims. Biserko highlights that Aleksandr Dugin—Putin’s ideological ally—has now turned publicly against Vučić, viewing him as too compromised and inconsistent. Moscow’s message is clear: Vučić must abandon his balancing act with the West and commit fully to the Kremlin’s orbit. This Russian pressure, she notes, coincides with a growing presence of far-right nationalists on Serbian campuses—further proof of Moscow’s hybrid playbook at work.
The European Union, by contrast, seems paralyzed. Hoping to preserve regional “stability,” Brussels continues to tolerate Vučić’s autocratic drift, clinging to a flawed model of stabilocracy. But stability bought at the expense of democracy is no stability at all. Biserko argues that the EU must no longer close its eyes. Serbia is not a neutral staging ground for geopolitical games—it is a society in democratic peril. As in 1997, when student protests helped spark a political awakening, what is needed now is credible European mediation, capable of channeling social energy into democratic transition, not nationalist backsliding.
The students themselves, while courageous, face structural and generational hurdles. Many lack experience in long-term political organizing, and some factions have been co-opted by nationalist ideologues. Still, Biserko sees in them a vital political and moral capital—one that could translate into real change if nurtured properly. Their call for new elections reflects a deeper yearning for legitimacy, transparency, and a voice in shaping Serbia’s future.
Vučić cannot postpone elections forever, nor can he indefinitely suppress dissent through violence. What he faces is not simply a challenge from students, but a society growing weary of fear, manipulation, and isolation. Serbia’s youth, long depoliticized and disillusioned, is now mobilizing—not in the name of yesterday’s nationalism, but in pursuit of tomorrow’s democracy.
If the West remains passive while Russia escalates, Serbia may find itself reliving its worst political chapters. To prevent this, international actors must act—not with platitudes, but with principled engagement. The future of Serbia should not be decided in the shadow of authoritarian repression or Kremlin intrigue. It should be reclaimed in the sunlight of democratic choice.
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