Brussels – In Serbia, overwhelmed by the biggest protest movement since the collapse of Slobodan Milošević’s regime, the authoritarian president Aleksandar Vučić is showing his muscles against civil society. He does so by taking advantage of the executive order by which Donald Trump froze U.S. funds earmarked for foreign aid: yesterday (Feb. 25), Serbian police raided the headquarters of four NGOs receiving funds from USAID and suspected of misuse of funds and money laundering.
The four organizations targeted by the investigation initiated by the Special Department of the Prosecutor’s Office are the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability, Civic Initiatives, Centre for Practical Politics, and Trag Foundation. All four have been working for years on human and civil rights, the rule of law, democratic elections, etc.
The Belgrade Attorney General’s Office confirmed the opening of the case and that it has contacted the U.S. Department of Justice to provide the necessary information regarding “suspicions that top U.S. government officials have previously expressed regarding the misuse of funds, possible money laundering and misuse of U.S. taxpayer funds in Serbia.”
The prosecutor’s Office released a statement citing “U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, as well as the Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk and even FBI Director Kash Patel” among those who “have expressed suspicions about USAID’s work.”
The NGOs accused the state of “attacking basic civil rights and continuing to exert illegal pressure on civil society in Serbia.” Vučić reportedly seized the opportunity to intensify the crackdown. The launch of the investigation follows weeks of public statements by government members and the president himself, who alluded to the funding of student protests by the U.S. agency. Since the start of the protests erupted over an incident at Novi Sad station in which 15 people died, Vučić has repeatedly made generic accusations of foreign interference stirring up the protesters.
Civic Initiatives released a statement confirming that on Tuesday morning, twenty or so police officers entered their offices without showing any search warrants. At the same time, law enforcement officers also raided the headquarters of the Centre for Practical Politics think-tank, which is located in the same building, despite the fact that the latter has no USAID-funded project. The think-tank’s director, Dragan Popović, lashed out with a post on X, calling the search “a senseless demonstration of the authoritarian regime’s muscles.”
Popović expressed concern that “Trump’s action against USAID is being used to threaten the work of civil society in Serbia.” A fear shared overseas by Amnesty International USA, according to which the police raid against NGOs in Serbia “is a horrific example” of how “ Trump and Musk’s allegations against USAID without documented evidence or due process have threatened human rights partners around the world.” Serbia is not the only country that has launched campaigns against NGOs after Trump’s accusations about USAID’s work. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has stated that funds in his country “were undoubtedly used for political purposes, with the aim of favouring certain parties,” and promised more thorough investigations.
Oceanic protests in Serbia against President Aleksandar Vučić (photo: Tadija Anastasijevic/Afp)
More than a day later, no comment has come from the top leadership of the European institutions. Neither from the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, nor from the Commissioner for Enlargement, Slovenia’s Marta Kos. Yet Belgrade is running for membership in the European Union and, as such, should guarantee a certain standard of respect for the rule of law. By choosing silence, the EU is supporting de facto the Vučić regime to the detriment of the democratic aspirations of the student-led protest movement. Sacrificed on the altar of stability: the EU does not want to isolate Serbia, a country already dangerously in Moscow’s orbit and capable of destabilizing the entire region.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
