Yearbook 2019
Serbia. Opposition Alliance for Serbia (SZS) conducted
throughout the winter, every Saturday and with thousands of
participants, protest marches demanding the resignation of
President Aleksandar Vučić and free and fair elections. The
protests began on December 8, 2018 after the leader of a
small left party was attacked and beaten in connection with
a political meeting. SZS said that it was Vučić and the
ruling Serbian Progress Party (SNS) that were behind the
attack and that the president has become a monarchical ruler
with control over the media. In March, the protesters
stormed the state television station RTS in Belgrade, and
outside the presidential palace, police used tear gas to
disperse the crowds. Despite the protests, Vučić refused to
resign. "I'm not afraid," he said.

According to
CountryAAH, Serbia's EU membership is delayed. According to France's
President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, the conflict with Kosovo must be resolved if we are
to move forward on the path to future EU membership. The
situation did not improve since Kosovo in November 2018
decided to impose 100 percent tariffs on goods from Serbia.
In anticipation of membership, Serbia instead formed a
"mini-Schengen" together with Albania and Northern
Macedonia. The agreement, which was signed in the Serbian
city of Novi Sad in October, entails freedom of passport
from 2021 between the countries as well as freedom of
movement in both services and goods and capital. It is hoped
that Bosnia, Kosovo and Montenegro will also join. In
addition, Serbia signed an agreement on the accession to the
Russian-Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in the same month,
which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
the Russian Federation. Serbia thus became the first country
outside the old Soviet Union to become a member of the EAEU.
The agreement was not seen openly by the EU, and when and if
Serbia becomes a member of the EU, the EAEU must be left out
as this is not in line with EU statutes.
In March, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić was
sentenced to life imprisonment for the crimes committed
during the Bosnian war of 1992–95, including the Srebrenica
massacre. In 2017, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison
for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in
The Hague (ICTY), but now the UN Court tightened the MICT
penalty.
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