Progressive Party

Some of the Orthodox Templars are taking oath. Dusan Ivkovic and Stevan Djokic (first two on the left side), Nemanja Ristic (last on the right side). Photo: Facebook

Members of the assembly of Srpska Lista, the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, on Tuesday re-elected Goran Rakic as president and Milan Radoicic as a party vice-president by unanimous decision. The assembly also elected Igor Simic and Dalibor Jevtic as vice-presidents.

Serbia's Progressive Party government has long been accused of a lack of transparency. Now it wants to enshrine the practice in law, journalists and civil society experts say.

Milan Radoicic, who was wanted for arrest as the alleged leader of an organised criminal group responsible for the murder of political party leader Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018, has returned home to Serb-majority northern Kosovo after being on the run for more than two years, police told BIRN.

Milan Radoicic, vice-president of the Srpska Lista party. Photo courtesy of N1.

"The Special Prosecution requested the withdrawal of the warrant and the court, acting upon the request, has lifted it," Kurtaj, the presiding judge in the Ivanovic murder case, told BIRN.

The prosecution declined to comment, saying that "this is an internal issue".

"It was always important for the state to have the support of the Serbian Orthodox Church for its policy, whether domestic or international," he said. "The pressure is not bigger now," Aleksic said, but Vucic's constant presence in the media makes his role appear "most important".

In 2021, Serbia's ruling Progressive Party faces being revisited by the errors of 2020.

A landslide election win in June yielded a parliament without an opposition, likely necessitating mediation by the European Union in 2021 if President Aleksandar Vucic is to head off another opposition boycott come the next election he wants held in 2022.

On January 7, when Orthodox Christians mark Christmas, a Serbian Orthodox bishop in Germany gave an interview to Balkan news outlet NewsMax Adria. His remarks, however, were more political than religious.

"There is no respect for slaves. And just because we all know that the slave system is not fair, that doesn't mean that it will be overthrown by the slave owners. The system suits them."

'Enemies of the state'

The Financial Police Directorate told BIRN that, as a director of ALFA SKOP DOO Skopje in 2013 and 2014, Kazic failed to report profits of 61.8 million denars, roughly a million euros, "thus failing to calculate and pay profit tax in the amount of 10 per cent of the total."

ALFA SKOP DOO is the owner of Alfa TV, one of six national broadcasters in North Macedonia.