At the recently concluded session Belgrade City Assembly the fate of the budget of the capital, where almost two million people live, has been decided. A huge part of citizens does not even know that next year, a dizzying 400 million euros will be allocated for "free" city transport, but it will not be a record. In 2026, the inglorious title of "spoiler" goes to the bureaucracy, which will cost us all together 27 billion dinars, or 14 percent of the budget.
Patching the "holes" in the budget will continue through new borrowings, but also by encroaching on the wallets of the citizens of Belgrade, who will soon see bills with higher costs. The mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, enters such a responsible year in 2026, who, according to the opposition, is moving again in the chair he has been sitting in since 2023. This is why the professional public is worried, but also offers solutions to fill the coffers and reduce costs. He spoke about this, among other things, for the new issue of the weekly "Vreme". Nikola Jovanovic, director of the Center for Local Self-Government.
"WEATHER" Is the City's budget, which was adopted recently, development budget or attempt to cover current allocations and patch loopholes?
NIKOLA JOVANOVIC: Belgrade has not yet adopted an official development strategy, and it does not even have a valid general urban plan. This speaks volumes about the attitude of this government towards development and the future. This is a destructive rather than a developmental budget. It represents an attempt to prolong the status quo, with which certain tycoons, companies close to the city government and a group of party soldiers who could never have a job in a normal labor market are satisfied. The citizens of Belgrade are dissatisfied because the essential problems are not being solved. The city is neglected, air pollution is never worse, a third of the citizens do not have sewage, and there are no serious investments.
You published the information that the Belgrade government will charge the citizens for 4,46 billion dinars. What it means?
In short, international banks and institutions no longer want to finance capital investments because they do not believe in the quality of management and city finances. That is why most capital projects were transferred to the republic. Because of this, the City is forced to take loans for current projects from domestic banks, namely those that are under political influence, such as Poštanska Štedionica and Alta Banka.
It is a model that is coming to an end. The city authorities can only increase taxes and prices of communal services, as well as further reduce investments. However, all this brings great harm. What hurts me the most is the time that passes and is thrown to the wind. When you look at where Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, and even Zagreb and Sofia are today, you realize how far behind we are and how much the gap is expanding.
You mentioned recently that utility companies currently owe suppliers about 18 billion dinars, and that the City borrowed from local banks this summer for 14,9 billion dinars. Where so much "squeaks" when there must be this much borrowing?
It is normal for the public sector of Belgrade to cooperate and employ private companies, but it is not normal not to pay them for it. There is still a philosophy here that private individuals should be happy when they get a job in the city and that they should not protest much in order not to be blacklisted. How can we expect Belgrade to attract new investments and foreign companies, when it currently owes 18 billion dinars to the private sector.
Belgrade is in a deep economic crisis, and in a crisis the city must encourage economic activity. Here I am referring to public investments, guaranteeing business loans from commercial banks and the like, while in Belgrade this government is suffocating by not paying suppliers and making the situation even more difficult for companies that have problems maintaining liquidity and employment. The incompetent city government is the biggest culprit for the slowdown of economic activity in the city and disruption of payment of financial obligations, which creates panic in the market, so the private sector pulls the "handbrake" and stops investing in fear of an uncertain future.
What role do free textbooks play in all this?, kindergartens and public transportation?
Free transport is not a problem, I would support that measure as a future mayor, but the problem is that public transport work is awarded to dubious private companies, while GSP is failing. On the other hand, in European metropolises, public transport is heavily subsidized, but there it is known to whom the money goes and what the ultimate goal of subsidizing public transport is - cities of mobility, without traffic jams, ecologically sustainable. In Belgrade, free public transport does not fulfill any of the stated purposes, the only goal is to "fill" the pockets of private citizens.
Therefore, it is mistakenly believed that the biggest problem is that the end users no longer pay for public transport and that the stay in preschool institutions is fully subsidized. But that is not the point. Even before the current mayor, hardly anyone paid a ticket, and parents paid only 10 percent of the economic price of kindergarten.
So what's the problem??
The problem is that every social measure is financed by reducing capital investment, not by reducing corruption or by making administration cheaper and more efficient. Expenditures in the budget for bureaucracy are 27,1 billion dinars, which is about 14 percent of the total budget. That's a record! Management has become more expensive, which means higher prices for utilities and property taxes. The payment to carriers from the budget for next year amounts to around 400 million euros, another infamous record. A minimum of 100 million euros could have been saved there if serious supervision over the work of the transporter had been established, i.e. that the lines were awarded in fair and open competitions. In other words, the mayor did not provide any measure with real measures, by improving the functioning of the city, but what he supposedly gives to the citizens in one pocket, he takes out of the other, and at the same time puts us all in debt.
Will Belgrade in the near future put itself in a situation where it will simply have to make painful cuts, so that the city does not go bankrupt?
Yes, but they don't have to be painful, they can be healing. Is it in the interest of all of us to root out corruption, to terminate harmful contracts with bad bus operators or with security firms that do not have the proper licenses? Is it in our interest that the three billion dinars for the "addition" of the Kalenić market be immediately diverted to the completion of the connection of the Bridge on Ada with Rakovica? Or should the funds for the famous dolphinarium be directed to the connection to the sewage system for all households and the processing of waste water? I think the answer is logical enough.
Forwards, will there be courage in the next government?, whatever it is, to abolish free projects? Can the citizens of Belgrade get used to paying for public transport again??
Free projects must exist for certain population categories such as students, pensioners, socially disadvantaged, low-income families and multiple children. Public transport can be financed in various ways. Let's say, with a special fee that does not necessarily imply the obligation to purchase a ticket for the end user. But the money collected by such a tax must then go to the renewal of the rolling stock, the expansion of the tram and trolleybus network, and traffic safety.
I repeat, a bigger problem for public transport than the abolition of charging is the systematic destruction of GSP and the favoring of private companies like Strela from Obrenovac, who take more from the budget than the city company. Then, Belgrade needs a social housing fund, for which zero dinars are currently allocated. Also, more will be allocated next year for the new phantom sports center for Vračara than for the shelter for the elderly and the shelter for children combined. What kind of social policy are we talking about then?
If we take all this into account, how certain is it that Šapić will stay until the end of the mandate, or 2028. at the head of the city?
I don't know what his personal fate is, but the model he promotes is harmful and unsustainable. Borrowing the city from commercial banks, transferring capital projects to the republic, a quarter of the budget for bus carriers, suspension of investments, corruption... it simply cannot go on like this.
Will it have political consequences??
Exactly that. I suspect that there will be a special election or his majority will replace him in one of the next sessions. I hope and support the first option, but at the moment the second is more realistic.
When we are already on the field of belief and hope, is it certain that Belgrade will get a metro since it was also discussed at the City Assembly?
Belgrade should have had a metro a long time ago. Even according to the latest project, which was presented in November 2021, the construction works were supposed to be completed in the spring of the following year, but the two "moles" will not arrive until then. At this rate, it is clear that there will be no metro in Belgrade before 2031.
You don't have optimistic forecasts., but in what sign will 2026 pass. years when it comes to Belgrade?
In the sign of change. They will first happen in the republican elections, they will be brought by young people, students, who have restored people's faith that Serbia can be different. They are the torchbearers of change and the future of Belgrade and Serbia.
Changes will happen because the drive for self-preservation is still stronger than any populism, partisanship or particular interest. This is a city that has stood proudly for two thousand years, occupies a strategic place in Southeast Europe, is bigger than all of us and will be here even when we are gone. And the changes, one way or another, will have to start already next year.
We from the Center for Local Self-Government will therefore, in cooperation with partner organizations, present the development and strategic document "Belgrade 2030", in which we will provide concrete mechanisms for rehabilitation and improvement of the situation in the capital city and list priorities.
We will also publish the "White Book of Crime and Corruption", which we have been working on for three years, as well as the "Register of Unscrupulous Contractors". We will invite all professional and socially responsible organizations to a joint performance within the broad initiative "Belgrade can't wait". It will be a platform for the gathering of all factors that can contribute to see the back of the disastrous SNS government as soon as possible and return Belgrade to its citizens.
