The Center of Serbia (SRCE) issued a damning assessment today, declaring that the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has systematically condemned Serbia to stagnation and underdevelopment. According to SRCE, the party’s economic policies have resulted in chronically low growth, projected to remain below 2 percent by the end of 2025.
“The reasons are obvious: incompetence, corruption, and a ruling elite more obsessed with ideology and self-interest than with the future of the country. As long as SNS clings to power, Serbia has no chance of development,” the SRCE press release states bluntly.
SRCE did not mince words. “Corruption runs through every corner of the state apparatus, while education is treated not as an investment in the country’s future, but as a cost to be slashed. SNS views schools as expense items, yet lavishly pours billions into vanity projects and political favors.”
The party highlighted SNS’s obsession with “megalomaniac infrastructure projects,” including the National Stadium and EXPO, describing them as catastrophic failures in transparency, accountability, and financial management. “These projects are riddled with unjustified price hikes, non-compliance with contracts, and corruption on a massive scale. The Serbian people are left to foot the bill, while the ruling party enriches itself.”
SRCE’s analysis exposes staggering mismanagement: the EXPO project’s costs have ballooned by 32 billion dinars, the National Stadium by 7.5 billion, and contracted roadworks by 55.6 billion dinars. The Fruškogorsk Corridor alone surged from 71.6 to 106.2 billion dinars—a 48 percent increase. Even more outrageous, the Ruma-Šabac-Loznica road skyrocketed by 90 percent, from 65.2 to 122.9 billion dinars. “These two projects alone have swallowed more than 800 million euros of taxpayers’ money, with citizens kept in the dark because all contracts are a so-called ‘trade secret,’” SRCE notes.
Meanwhile, education has been systematically gutted. Under SNS, the education budget has plummeted to below 3 percent of GDP, teachers’ salaries now lag behind the national average, and 60 percent of funds meant for school modernization and teaching materials are diverted to secure political loyalty. “While fighter jets are prioritized over textbooks, only 0.3 percent of the planned funds for 2025 have gone to support talented students. SNS does not care for talent or knowledge—they care for children as political tools.”
SRCE concludes with a scathing call to action: “It is time to end this reckless, criminal indulgence in ignorance. Serbia must break free from corruption and incompetence. Our nation’s future should be built on education, merit, and real development—not on SNS’s greed, cronyism, and Ćaciland theatrics.”
