Vladan Joler

Harm offensive at home, charm offensive abroad! Kudos to @guardian for reporting objectively on Serbia, but I don’t understand why they felt the need to publish a spin dictator’s letter full of lies and ugly spins. 🔗 theguardian.com/world/2025/a… Let me fact-check Vučić’s letter for you. ⸻ Lie (or half truth at best) #1: The protests “recently turned violent.” Truth: It was the regime that escalated matters in mid-August by unleashing loyalist thugs, who attacked protesters with full police complicity. Some protesters did respond with violence (potentially by infiltrated provocateurs, they have a strong track record of doing this) but it was the regime who deliberately started the last cycle of violence just to be able to blame protesters for it. The sequence of events is well documented: 🔗 crd.org/2025/08/14/serbian-p… I personally witnessed a similar setup in Belgrade on 14 August. ⸻ Lie #2: “Police actions have remained limited and restrained, and targeted only those who damaged property or assaulted officers.” Truth: The level of police brutality and repression since the 2nd week of August has been unprecedented since the Milošević period in the 1990s. Many of our students were arrested and beaten. There is a short video documenting this: 🔗 instagram.com/reel/DN3ZeezWD… ⸻ Lie #3: “Demonstrations shifted away from justice and toward overt political aims: the removal of the government outside democratic processes.” Truth: Students’ initial demands were about justice, but they now demand the opposite of what the president claims: free and fair (snap) elections. 🔗 amp.dw.com/en/serbias-studen… ⸻ Lie #4: “Serbia is deeply engaged with Europe and steadily advancing its democratic and economic development.” Truth: Serbia has made no progress toward EU membership since 2021 due to state capture, democratic backsliding, worsening rule of law, and close ties with Moscow. 🔗 ceps.eu/the-eus-strategic-co… ⸻ Lie #4: “Serbia is a democracy.” Truth: Under President Vučić, Serbia has regressed from democracy into a hybrid (semi-authoritarian) regime and is among the worst backsliders globally. This is confirmed by countless reports, scholarly publications and all leading indices, including Freedom House, Varieties of Democracy, and the Press Freedom Index. 🔗 vreme.com/en/vesti/fridom-ha… ⸻ Lie #5: “Serbia will hold elections before the 2027 deadline, as it has consistently done, and is making progress on electoral reforms.” Truth: Past elections in Serbia were marred by manipulation and irregularities, and were neither free nor fair. 🔗 crta.rs/wp-content/uploads/2… Also, there is no evidence that the government is addressing seriously any of the ODIHR recommendations on how to improve election integrity in Serbia. On the contrary, recent local elections in Zaječar and Kosjerić, along with efforts to silence the country’s last independent media, demonstrate that electoral conditions are deteriorating. 🔗 crta.rs/za-nered-u-birackom-… 🔗 occrp.org/en/news/audio-reco…