Thread by @salematkovic

So a couple of people have asked me to update everyone on what's going on in Serbia. I've been meaning to do that for some time now, but there have been lots of events, and I am a bit overwhelmed. So, I will just do a short rundown here. (1/28)

I tried to put everything in chronological order without too much added commentary.For a start, neither the German nor the Serbian state have condemned the violence. Last time I forgot to add some things: on August 13, in the midst of this crisis, Franziska Brantner, (2/28)

Parliamentary State Secretary at Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs & Climate Action, said it is not a question of if, but who will mine the lithium in Serbia. The rest was written in my previous tweet and here is what happened afterwards:1. (3/28) balkangreenenergynews.com/question-isnt-…

1) I received more threats from August 19 – August 24 (all reported to the police) after 2) Rio Tinto publicly spoke out in a weird way (link to their letter is below), (4/28) nova.rs/vesti/drustvo/…

condemning me as being part of a “disinformation campaign against the company” and threatening me with a lawsuit in an open letter they published as a reply to me on August 19. Others also started receiving threats during those days. 3) On August 22, director of the CIA, (5/28)

William Burns, made an unannounced visit to the region and came to Serbia. He was hosted by the director of the Serbian Security Information Agency, Vladimir Orlić. At the same time, (6/28)

it was announced that Macron would also be visiting in order to discuss sales of French Rafale airplanes and exporting nuclear waste to Serbia. I don’t know if lithium was part of the discussions, (7/28)

but so many foreign heads of state visiting Serbia in a short time is unusual. 4)On August 23, Vučić made a public statement saying had also received death threats (I am not joking) and that he is afraid of a "color revolution." (8/28) danas.rs/vesti/drustvo/…

5) On August 26, it was discovered that Serbia had allegedly started to hold back people at the border. One activist was harassed at the border while trying to leave the country for holidays, (9/28)

and a famous Croatian singer called Severina was famously held back at the border on August 26. She was questioned by the police over her stance on lithium, Srebrenica, and Kosovo—all things related to Serbian state ideology, (10/28)

quite possibly in order to create a reason to not let her into the country. The media attention on this revealed that the Serbian government has allegedly drawn up a list of all people who said something negative about Serbia, and after Severina spoke out, (11/28)

they promised to delete it. This is a wild escalation. 6)On August 27, my case was reported to the UN Special Rapporteur for Environmental Defenders 7) After a lecture in Croatia on August 28, (12/28)

I received a call to speak at the European Parliament about both the mine and the case. This will be held in October, ahead of the Critical Raw Materials Board meeting, (13/28)

where they might decide that the EU wants to categorize the Serbian "Jadar" project as a strategic project for the EU—all the while all of this is happening in Serbia and just polarizing the region. 8) In the wake of the president’s statement and the CIA visit, (14/28)

the latest madness is that the government created a fake civil movement called "We will dig" (Kopaćemo) with their own website and logo. Their Twitter account says they will monitor everyone who "spreads disinformation about the mine" and "uncover them. (15/28)

This happened on August 29. 9) Then, on August 30, the wife of the organizer of an upcoming protest (mentioned below) received a mail to come to the Higher Court of Justice, even though her main activity was supporting urban gardening via an NGO. (16/28)

Her hearing was subsequently held in a building not designated for such purposes. The message is clear, however. 10) On September 1st (tonight) there will be a protest where activists and citizens who experienced any police violence, etc. (17/28)

will speak out near the Serbian Radio-Television Network headquarters in Belgrade. This morning, pro-government news outlets printed articles denouncing the protest and included strange passages that sound like veiled threats, (18/28) novosti.rs/vesti/politika…

such as: "within the organization that organizes the protests, something will happen that will affect the protests and present a little bit of a surprise for the organizers." This is probably a bunch of BS, (19/28)

but it still represents a complete departure from objective media reporting and tells you everything about the atmosphere of complete paranoia that one can feel. There are many attempts at threatening random citizens and organizations by the security agencies. (20/28)

I am not sure what all of this will evolve into, but I am pretty sure that the more repression is used, the more people will be galvanized. (21/28)

This is just a one-way ticket for discrediting the neutral and technocratic language that the EU’s green transition has been cloaked in quite fast. (22/28)

The inability to plan a just transition is not something to be lamented by random Marxist leftists just out of spite or whatever—it obviously has real consequences, (23/28)

as this is becoming just a complete corporate fiasco that will probably make its way up and into the countries that are involved, because they will now be directly tied to what’s going on in Serbia, the region, and other countries like Portugal. (24/28)

I have heard a lot of conspiracy theories of Russian meddling, Western meddling, Eastern meddling, and I can say 90% of that is just plain BS (I have even tried to get sources on that as that is completely absent on the ground), (25/28)

and a lot of such theories just downplay the local agency of the movements. The movements are diverse, and not all actions are coordinated. Yet, some are, and after tonight’s protest, there will be more things to come.I won’t spare too much time on moralist parlays, (26/28)

but I just wanted to acknowledge that it was very important that most of the affected citizens and activists have been speaking out in public. But I think outside of Serbia, it has definitely become clear this is now a global issue, rather than a local one. (27/28)

And I think we are yet to see more of the situation as it is in an ongoing phase. If I get more information, I will post it here and just want to thank everyone for supporting this which has literally contributed to what I think might be a welcome shift in public opinion. (28/28)

P.S. this is the thread of another organization five of whose members have been arrested and are now facing charges of "attempting to abolish the Constitutional order". Tonight they are organizing a protest in Belgrade at which I will also be speaking

https://x.com/EkoStraza/status/1829647639811682756

P.P.S. Just returned. Thousands protested near the Radio-Television Network. And it didn't report on the protests held directly in front of it. Also, the fake organization created by the government is now making a *registry* of "eco-terrorists" (us) using FBI classification

P.P.P.S. There is even an option for any citizen of Serbia to "report an eco-terrorist" via a button. They are literally drawing targets on people's heads and publishing personal data including photos of my friends and details on every one of them.