The prestigious French newspaper Le Monde writes that Serbia is experiencing a serious deterioration of the rule of law, as nationalist President Aleksandar Vučić accused for years of maintaining close political ties with Moscow has announced a controversial judicial reform that has sparked open revolt within the country’s most elite prosecutorial institutions.
Since Monday, February 2, dozens of employees of Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime (TOK) have been symbolically suspending work every day at 9:00 a.m. for about ten minutes, in front of the court in Belgrade where some of the Balkans’ most dangerous criminals are tried. They are protesting the reform announced on January 30 by Vučić, despite strong objections from unions, legal experts, civil society organizations, and the European Union.
The head of TOK, Mladen Nenadić, has warned that if the reform enters into force, the institution he leads will be left with only nine active prosecutors.
“If the law is implemented as planned, we will lose eleven prosecutors, and the remaining nine will be forced to take on thousands of pages of active case files,” Nenadić stated. He is known for investigations carried out in cooperation with French judicial authorities, particularly in the Sky ECC encrypted communications case.
These investigations led to the dismantling of several powerful Serbian criminal groups which, according to Le Monde, had direct links to the highest levels of the state.
Nenadić has publicly denounced political pressure and a hostile climate toward prosecutors since the moment TOK opened corruption investigations against several ministers from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Vučić’s party, which has ruled the country since 2014.
“The highest state officials and pro-government media treat us like garbage,” he said, also pointing to the police’s refusal to cooperate in investigations that affect those in power.
The author of the contested law, SNS MP Uglješa Mrdić, stated on television that the reform aims to stop prosecutors “who wanted to arrest President Vučić” and carry out a “color revolution.” According to Le Monde, this rhetoric aligns with the pro-Russian narrative that dominates Serbia’s political discourse.
The European Commission has described the reform as “a step backward on Serbia’s European path,” emphasizing that it was adopted without consultations and seriously undermines judicial independence.
The reform comes at a time when Serbia is facing a deep political and social crisis, following the collapse of a shelter at the Novi Sad railway station in November 2024, which killed 16 people. The tragedy sparked the largest protests in the country since the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, increasing public pressure for a genuine fight against corruption.
According to Le Monde, although no minister had faced indictment for more than 30 years, TOK has opened investigations against senior SNS officials over price inflation in the Belgrade–Novi Sad railway project, carried out by a Chinese company. It has also brought former Culture Minister Nikola Selaković to trial for abuse of office and document forgery.
Weakened by mass protests and international pressure, Vučić has launched an offensive against critical institutions—universities, media, culture, and the judiciary—alarming Brussels, which seeks to curb Russian influence in the Balkans.
Nevertheless, in an interview with Reuters, Vučić insisted that Serbia “will remain on the path toward the EU as long as he is president,” while leaving open the possibility of reconsidering the reform but only under pressure from the European Union.
