Having gained full control over the police and services, the Serbian authorities have also begun to subjugate the judiciary. Amendments to several laws aim to establish full party control over the work of some prosecutors' offices and practically make the fight against crime and corruption impossible.
Therefore, the focus of these changes is on the Organized Crime Prosecution Office (OCP), which, as experts point out, will effectively stop the work of this prosecution office. This will be done by returning the “referred prosecutors” from the OCP to their local prosecutors.
Furthermore, the High Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade will be given greater jurisdiction and will have more departments. It is headed by Nenad Stefanović, a man close to the authorities.
As members of the regime and their collaborators increasingly find themselves under indictment in this prosecution, the authorities have found a solution that inspires distrust – by changing the law. TOK will become an empty shell paralyzed from action.
The Constitutional Court – a service of the ruling party
The proponent of these changes, SNS MP Uglješa Mrdić, states that the goal is "to strengthen respect for the Constitution and return part of the unbridled and captured prosecution and judiciary under the control of the Serbian state."
The professional community has warned that, without a public debate and verification of legal compliance, such a step represents a major precedent. The EU has also warned that this is a “serious step backwards when it comes to Serbia’s EU membership and that an urgent turnaround is needed.”
Some European politicians consider this a red line, because of which the EU should stop negotiations with Serbia.
The extent to which the government is no longer interested in any warnings is also shown by the recent statement by the President of the Constitutional Court, Vladan Petrov, that "judges who publicly declare themselves opponents of the current government should be dismissed."
In addition to being considered scandalous, this has also provoked a reaction from the informal group of prosecutors and judges "Protection of the Profession", which is demanding Petrov's dismissal from that position.
The "drug cartel" strikes back
We are witnessing the destruction of institutions, lawyer Božo Prelević tells DW, because the government in Serbia is engaged in illegal and criminal activities. Prelević recalls the case of the seizure of 5.5 tons of marijuana in Konjuh near Kruševac, which is suspected of being an SNS advisor.
"For the first time, you have discovered a large amount of drugs linked to SNS members, or its financiers. If within three days you have an attempt to shut down TOK, and then they find 5.5 tons of marijuana in the yard of an SNS official, then you know exactly why they want to shut it down," says Prelević.
"I don't know if such a system exists in any part of the world. This makes it clear where the money comes from for organizing regime supporters in Belgrade, for buying votes and corrupting other politicians and MPs," Prelević told DW.
The illusion of democracy has been shattered.
Now, fear in society has begun to disappear, believes political analyst Dragomir Anjelković. That is why, he says, Aleksandar Vučić “is no longer trying to preserve the illusion of a democratic system and is taking steps that are increasingly closer to a classic dictatorship.”
"This is also evidenced by the statement of the President of the Constitutional Court Petrov - from claiming to be a democratic society, we have reached a point where, as in totalitarian societies, officials openly say that the law is no longer important, but that the will of the dictator is what decides everything," warns our interlocutor.
The concentration of power and total control of institutions calls into question the meaning of elections. Serbia is already recording cases of ignoring court decisions in local elections, elections in judicial bodies are being annulled, the reaction of the Constitutional Court can already be predicted based on the aforementioned statements by the President of that court...
And if that doesn't help either, there is the loyal police force that uses cordons to protect against any illegality and arbitrariness of the authorities. There will be practically no legal remedy if all the legal innovations remain in force.
Bozho Prelević notes that it is really “a question of who you can turn to in cases of certain political disagreements”.
"If it's the Constitutional Court, what can you expect when the president of that court believes that judges who are on the side of the law should be removed? This shows the pattern of action and raises the very serious question of how to win it," he adds.
Elections in Serbia have been meaningless since 2014, notes Dragomir Anjelkovic. "Now he can't even manipulate the elections, but he has to steal them brutally. And he has mechanisms of force to protect that theft."
"Again, the question arises whether there is a willingness of citizens to take to the streets en masse on a D-Day after the elections. If this willingness exists, I still think that in that case Vučić could not emerge victorious through massive repression," says our interlocutor.
Operative team or operetta?
The European Union has already warned that this is a significant blow to Serbia's European integration, but Belgrade's response has been cynical as usual. The Serbian president is unclear about how Serbia has taken a step back when it has not taken any steps forward.
This also showed that the time to leave the EU has passed and that the only thing left is the stale phrase "we are on the European path."
The formation of a kind of operational team for Serbia's European integration has also been assessed as a special kind of cynicism. Its role is clearly to buy time, because the head of that team, Danijel Apostolović, stated that "changes to judicial laws will be part of the dialogue with the EU in search of a compromise solution."
"I think Vučić is convinced that the EU is preoccupied with big problems and that he is not a priority for them," Prelević draws attention./DW
