Beograd
The end of Cacilend
On Monday (January 5), cars and buses moved around Nikola Pašić Square, next to the former House of Trade Unions and near the National Assembly. Under the vejavica, citizens were able to take a ride on the new roundabout for the first time.
That was the official end of the tent settlement that lasted for ten months and got its name from the Cyrillic graffiti in front of Jovina Gymnasium in Novi Sad, where it was written: "Let's go to school".
Pionirski Park was occupied on March 6, 2025, nine days before the biggest protest in Serbian history. At first, as a camp for "students who want to learn", the so-called Ćaciland welcomed SNS activists and social cases who stayed there for a living wage, and then also beaters, guys with black hoods and veterans with red berets.
Over time, the camp "professionalized" and expanded, isolated by a double-row metal fence lubricated with cargo grease. It was the only "registered public meeting" in history to which the public did not have access, the only one that lasted so long and had the honor of having the police and the Gendarmerie acting as security.
"The freest place in Europe", as Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić called him, was a place of skirmishes and unpunished attacks on citizens and journalists. In November, a pensioner, in an obvious nervous breakdown, shot at a camp resident and wounded him.
More often, Ćaciland was a slave to routine - dreamy people wandered around, watched Informer and sports broadcasts in tents, while "patriotic" music blared in the early evening, right until 21 p.m.
What was the purpose of this occupation of a representative part of Belgrade? Some thought of the strategic occupation of the ground for possible protests, others were betting on the symbolic marking of the territory.
As Andrej Ivanji, editor of the Vreme portal, writes in his commentary, the existence of such a camp began to cause sharp reactions and warnings from Brussels, and it was a matter of days when one of the "recruited gentlemen" would kill someone.
"Regarding Ace Serbs' paranoid fear of mass protests, Ćaciland exposed the nature of the progressive regime to the end and caused lasting internal and external damage to the Serbian Progressive Party," writes Ivanji.
According to Vučić, who visited the camp for the last time at the end of the year, people in Ćaciland "guarded Serbia and defended the country". The president has, for the umpteenth time, defeated the "colored revolution", so I guess he doesn't even need the camp anymore.
Energy Industry
Hungarians arrive at NIS
Russian Gazprom is negotiating the sale of a stake in the Serbian Oil Industry to the Hungarian MOL. If the sale slows down, the energy giant should finally get rid of the US sanctions that have been in force for almost a year, although the implementation has been delayed several times. The authorities in Belgrade seemed to be waiting for a miracle to happen and to survive in the grind between Trump's sanctions and frowns from the Kremlin at the mention of the nationalization of NIS.
Now the only Serbian refinery, the one in Pancevo, should start operating by the end of January using the approval of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control to import crude oil again.
In an economic analysis, "Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung" writes that the Serbian economy is stumbling and not only because of sanctions.
"Foreign investments were halved, the construction sector fell, domestic demand weakened and growth of only two percent was recorded for the year 2025. For this year, it is calculated at less than three percent, although the National Bank of Serbia is optimistic and announces 3,5 percent," the newspaper writes.
There remains hope that the Hungarian MOL - which relies on Viktor Orbán's closeness to Moscow - will complete the work on the NIS, and that all of this will satisfy the American administration.
Vučić's "addresses"
At least once a day
photo: darko vojinović / fonet / ap...
The record has fallen! According to Crta's calculation, Vučić "addressed" the citizens 411 times last year, thus breaking the quota of one address per day.
Who is he talking so much to? Public opinion polls, which show that the government would lose an even fair election, find majority support for Vučić only among pensioners and among people who have at least eight years of schooling.
In such a situation, analysts say, Vučić is concentrating on preserving his electorate and sowing discord among his opponents.
In an analysis of Vučić's "New Year's address", the Bureau of Social Research found that three-quarters of the speeches were about areas outside the president's jurisdiction.
"First of all, anxiety and fear are encouraged in the audience, through predictions of global conflicts, and then that fear is amortized by the topic of strengthening Serbia's armed forces. After that, by pointing to allegedly positive results in the field of economy, the president tries to increase the satisfaction of the audience", analyzes Birodi.
"Support for Vučić is declining, and the key question for him is whether this decline can be stopped and stabilized," Jelena Cupać, a researcher at the Berlin Center for Social Sciences, told Vreme.
"In other words, can Vučić consolidate the electorate at a certain level, through the proven narrative of internal and external enemies, and then win the elections with reduced but disciplined support," added Jelena Cupać.
Social policy
Lottery for the poor
Serbia enters another year without data on how many citizens live in absolute poverty, that is, how many of them cannot meet their basic needs for food, clothing and a roof over their heads.
The latest data from the Republic Institute of Statistics (2024) say that a fifth of the population was at "risk of poverty", that is, they had less than 35.606 dinars per month. This affected almost a quarter of pensioners.
"There are no public policies that would bring changes for the better to the poor, the economic system is not favorable to them because they depend on precarious jobs or involvement in the gray economy, they are exploited and at constant risk of rights violations, while the cost of living crisis solves approved decrees and the president's understanding of the world of poverty," Danilo Ćurčić, program director of the A11 initiative, told "Vreme".
This initiative and other non-governmental organizations criticized the fact that Serbia has not had a social protection strategy since 2009. Ćurčić's forecasts for this year are also black, despite the increase in pensions and measures.
"There is a lottery where the government decides to grant certain rights to a category of people who are at risk, and then uses the opportunity to present it as a huge step forward," says our interlocutor. "Until he shows those who didn't get anything that they just need to be patient a little longer and the time will come for them to solve their social, housing or other problems."
photo: jadranka ilić / tanjug...
Palace complex
The disobedient prince
Culture in Serbia remains chronically underfunded. The budget for the new year, minimally increased, amounts to about 16,7 billion dinars.
However, for the first time in two decades, there was no room in the budget for the maintenance of the Palace Complex in Dedinje. There, on 134 hectares, are located the Royal Palace, the White Palace and the Palace Chapel as part of the Topčider complex, which the state declared a cultural asset of exceptional importance.
The state gave the complex to the Karađorđević family, which, although in the republic, is treated as "heir to the throne". However, now the item of 77 million dinars for its maintenance has been deleted, which is anyway a smaller sum than that for the maintenance of the villas in which Ana Brnabić and Tomislav Nikolić live without a valid basis.
Critics believe that the reason is the behavior of Prince Filip Karađorđević, who supported the student protests on March 15. "Their call for justice and accountability is a reflection of their commitment to a better future for all," he wrote at the time.
Then in August, on the occasion of commemorating the 104th anniversary of the death of King Petar I Karađorđević in Oplenac, Prince Filip refused to lay a wreath for his grandfather after Minister Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, a representative of the Army and local governments. He laid the wreath independently, before the state ceremony.
The Government of Serbia did not explain the decision to cancel the financing of the Palace Complex.
Switzerland
Death on the horizon
This Friday (January 9) has been declared a day of mourning in Switzerland after a New Year's Eve party at an inn in the Crans Montana ski resort ended in inferno. 40 people died, more than a hundred were injured. Mostly young people died, and the youngest victim was 14 years old.
Serbian citizen Stefan I. (31), who worked as a security guard at the bar "Le Konstelacion", also died in the fire. The tabloid "Blik" wrote about him as a "hero" who rescued several people from the fire. Four more Serbian young men were injured.
The fire is believed to have been caused by the girl holding a champagne bottle with lit sprinklers attached to the cap too close to the foam insulation on the ceiling. The first footage showed people not yet leaving the building but trying to put out the fire. Or they record what is happening.
Experts talked about the so-called flashover - the rapid spread of fire that occurs when the burning material emits certain gases. In a few seconds everything was in flames.
The two French nationals who managed the bar are being investigated on suspicion of multiple manslaughter. It is suspected that the insulation of the ceiling was not in accordance with the regulations, as well as that the evacuation routes were not valid.
