Serbia’s leaderless force starts dismantling Vucic’s regime

• Student-led winners are starting to break Aleksandar Vucic’s long grip on Serbia, even before taking office. Officials at key bodies have called for probes, and media chiefs have resigned or apologised for bias.
• The Student List plans anti-corruption reforms, institutional changes, and reviews of state projects and contracts. It also wants to protect the dinar, energy supplies, wages, and pensions.
• Arrests and licence revocations have hit figures linked to Vucic, including Alta Banka owner Davor Macura and police chief Marko Kricak. Novak Djokovic backed a “fresh start” for the country.

More than a week after unexpectedly defeating Serbia’s longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic at the polls, the incoming student-led bloc still has not taken its seats in parliament or named its prime minister. 

But the officials in Belgrade Vucic dominated for over a decade have already begun dismantling his regime.

Leaders at institutions as diverse as the central bank and the state prosecutors office have called for investigations into potential crimes committed during Vucic’s tenure.

Top brass from the state broadcaster – seen as the backbone of his media machine – have resigned or apologised for biased coverage.

“We are witnessing the ice melting as Vucic’s control and monopoly over every segment of the society is starting to vanish,” said Zarko Korac, a professor at the University of Belgrade who served in the government of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who was assassinated in 2003.

Fighting corruption is high on the Student List’s plan for the first 100 days once the government is in place.

The measures will be aimed at “de-criminalising the state,” restructuring institutions and reviewing public-sector projects and contracts, according to Radomir Saicic, a university professor and one of newly elected lawmakers. 

Plans also include maintaining the stability of dinar, ensuring energy supplies, and making timely payouts of wages and pensions, he said in an interview with NIN weekly magazine.

“Institutional changes at the top of the mafia octopus are the first step, a precondition for all the next steps,” he said.

Over the weekend, the central bank revoked the operating licence for Belgrade-based Alta Banka AD, part of the closely held Alta Group. 

Hours after the action against Alta Banka by the central bank, which cited the “deterioration” of the lender’s financial position, all four of its vice-governors issued a statement that urged an investigation into possible criminal liability of the regulator itself, saying the bank’s deteriorating situation was kept from them.

Alta Banka, favoured by Russians immigrants in Serbia, was built up by its owner Davor Macura, whose wealth grew with the help of state contracts until his Nov 2 arrest on suspicion of misappropriating 45 billion dinars (S$550 million) since the Oct 25 ballot.

He has been cooperating with police and the public prosecutor’s office, his lawyer said.

Over the weekend, police arrested Marko Kricak, a Vucic loyalist who headed the country’s Criminal Police department, over his alleged role in manipulating an investigation into a gangland murder case that rocked Belgrade in summer.

He was also accused by the student movement of a brutal police response to demonstrations.

Another arrested was Bosko Sekulovic, the head of the Office for Suppression of Crime, for alleged misuse of office. There was no clarity on who was representing the two officials.

“I’m not happy with the situation in which Marko Kricak is now,” Vucic said after the ranking police officer was arrested.

The country’s State Prosecutors for Organized Crime also issued a statement seeking an investigation into possible violation of their office, following a media report that the prosecutors were spied upon. 

The head of the nation’s hydro-meteorological service and two other officials were arrested on Nov 3 on suspicion of money laundering, according to local media reports. 

“Other changes may happen as some people are trying to save their careers and escape either criminal responsibility, or accusations that they had failed to do their job,” Korac said by phone. “What we are seeing is probably just the beginning.”

The election winner also got a voice of support from tennis star Novak Djokovic.

He has met several times with Vucic, who publicly celebrated him and defended the tennis player when he was deported from Australia in 2022 over failing to produce a coronavirus vaccination proof. 

Their relations cooled after Djokovic started expressing support for the student movement.

“I’m not going to discuss or comment on the past,” he told reporters in Paris on Nov 2. “The past is the past. Hopefully this is a fresh start for the country.” BLOOMBERG