On Oct. 25, the people of Serbia will hold the most important and decisive election in their recent history. For the first time, a powerful student movement challenges the corrupt cabal of Aleksandar Vucic, who, through Putin-style collusion and scheming, has ruled and ransacked the country while suppressing political competition with his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) for 14 years. Vucic is already doing everything he can to steal this election.
Supporters of rule of law worldwide must speak out and watch closely to limit rigging and give freedom a fighting chance.
Vucic has spent exorbitant sums in Washington on lobbyists. Their goal? To have the world look away. Their message? That Vucic is a necessary evil, an imperfect solution in a country that would otherwise put radicals in charge, but nothing could be further from the truth. Vucic and the SNS are radicals subservient to war criminal Vladimir Putin. The Vucic regime spends its days looting Serbia and selling the country to Russia and the Chinese Communist Party.
The Serbian state oil and gas company is outright owned by Russia, financing President Vladimir Putin’s killing of Ukrainian civilians. Vucic has integrated Chinese military and surveillance technology into Serbia and held a joint military exercise with the People’s Liberation Army. He even sent a delegation to the funeral of the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — the only European country to do so. Serbia and Russia have close intelligence cooperation, and Serbia has served as a base of operations for Russia’s shadow war against the West.
Overtures by Vucic to the United States and Europe are bald-faced lies.
However, there is hope. Vucic’s outrageous corruption that led directly to the Novi Sad canopy collapse and the death of 16 innocent Serbians has given birth to the new student movement. This movement seeks to restore the rule of law in the country. A peaceful, prosperous, and stable Serbia under the rule of law would be a historic victory for the Serbian people, the region, and the world. This would also make Serbia a safe place for American investment, which is currently not the case under Vucic’s corrupt cabal.
Vucic and his friend, war criminal Putin, are doing all they can to rig the election. Putin has already explicitly endorsed Vucic. The regime is misusing state resources, promulgating fake voter rolls, and consolidating all media under the state. State security services are cracking down. Free speech is punished. The Vucic regime is obstructing Serbian diaspora voting. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights determined that the previous 2023 parliamentary election had been held under “unjust conditions” and provided recommendations for holding free and fair elections. None of these have been implemented.
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I am grateful in the U.S. House of Representatives to sponsor the Supporting the Rule of law, Building Institutional Justice, and Accountability (SRBIJA) Act, along with my democratic colleague, Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA), the ranking member of the subcommittee on Europe, and now in the U.S. Senate, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are sponsoring. This bipartisan, bicameral bill is a demonstration that Washington recognizes the importance of Serbia and hears the cries of its people for free and fair elections. The U.S. wants not only a free and prosperous Serbia, but a free and prosperous region.
Serbia, with $17,200 per capita, is at a crossroads. It can either share in the prosperity of Slovenia, $40,600 per capita, and Croatia, $30,000 per capita, and become a major and meaningful player in a critical region, or go the way of authoritarian Belarus, $11,300 per capita. In a free and fair election, it is clear the Serbian people will choose freedom.
Joe Wilson is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives serving South Carolina’s 2nd District and serves as the co-chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission.