Serbia Security Reform Row: Vučić Warns of 'Dismantling' After RTS Debate

Aleksandar Vučić, the former president who now leads the Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia list in parliament, said in an Instagram video on Thursday, 12 November, that the "dismantling" of Serbia's defence and security sector had begun on orders from foreign intelligence services. He offered no evidence for the claim. The video followed a morning appearance on public broadcaster RTS by Predrag Petrović, research director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), a non-governmental think tank.

What Vučić said

Vučić said that NGOs funded from abroad now hold key roles and want the security and intelligence services broken up. He said students had proposed scrapping the planned 75-day compulsory military service, which he said would leave barracks empty, and that they rejected cooperation with Israel and China. He asked whether the country was returning to the period between 2000 and 2012.

What the security-sector reform debate is about

On RTS, Petrović called for a thorough reform of the security sector and said removing police powers from the security and intelligence services should be a key step, according to Tanjug. Separately, Filip Ubović, a student movement representative, said on a podcast that Vučić had been close to Israel, and a student representative said work at a drone assembly plant opened with Israel should be stopped. The plant was not named.

What the Student List programme says on military service

The 75-day compulsory service was announced by the outgoing government and has not started. The Student List programme does not mention abolishing it. Instead it proposes a six-month voluntary service for about 3,000 people a year, with pay of at least 20,000 dinars a month and recognised work experience, plus an active contract reserve of about 3,000 people and modernisation of the army. It also proposes reopening past cases such as the deaths of two guardsmen at Topčider.

The Student List, which holds 140 of the 250 seats, had not responded to Vučić's video by Thursday evening, and neither had the BCSP. The new National Assembly holds its constitutive session on 17 November, with consultations between parliamentary groups scheduled for Friday at noon.