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Serbian activists gathered in their thousands in Belgrade to protest about a crackdown against resistance to a lithium mine, in a test of the government’s plans to boost the country’s economy.
The rally on Sunday evening, organised by the Eco Guard group, is the latest in a series of actions linked to Rio Tinto’s proposed lithium mine — a project Serbia’s government has hailed as an economic milestone, but which activists and locals say would destroy the country’s Jadar Valley region that lies above Europe’s largest deposit of the critical mineral.
“This protest has a clear political message: there will be no mining of lithium,” said Savo Manojlovic, an activist who organised mass blockades in 2022 that shut down parts of the country and forced the government to cancel the mine project. “We should stand by everyone who defends [Jadar].”
Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia’s president and the winner of disputed elections in December and May, revived the plan this year. In July, he received the backing of EU leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and major European automobile companies, including Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Stellantis.
Lithium is a key component of batteries for electric vehicles and the government expects the mine to add between €10bn and €12bn to annual GDP, which totalled €64bn in 2022. That would provide a much-needed boost to an economy where GDP per capita was less than 50 per cent of the EU average in 2023.
Despite the potential economic benefits, there are widespread public objections to the project.
Tens of thousands gathered in Belgrade and across the country last month to oppose a project that some experts say will create significant environmental damage and upheaval for people living nearby.
Some of the activists occupied train stations in Belgrade, recalling the blockade of major highways and bridges which forced the government to drop the project in 2022.
Although there were no reports of arrests on Sunday, since last month’s protests began, dozens of organisers have faced police raids on their homes and charges of violently subverting the constitutional order, a crime that carries a jail term of up to 15 years.
“We must defend all activists who are fighting for land, water, air, democracy and the rule of law,” Eco Guard said in its call for the latest protest.
“The repression against activists is a threat to basic human and civil rights and comes from the same source that endangers the environment in Serbia,” it said. “Any civil disobedience will be punished by unfounded serious criminal offences unless we stop this.”
The police and the Serbian prosecutor’s office, which oversees the police’s handling of the protests, were not immediately available to comment.
Serbians are split about the benefits of the lithium mine, with activists including green groups warning of the dangers to the country’s environment.
Rio Tinto has also clashed with environmental scientists who claimed in the journal Nature that the project carries undue risks. The company demanded that the article, which it called erroneous, be amended or retracted.
Economist Aleksandar Matković, who published an essay arguing against the mine in August, has received death threats, which only stopped once he went public with them and forced police to investigate the case.
“Vučić quite probably sees electric vehicles as a condition for the continuation of his authoritarian regime,” Matković said in the essay. “Here we have an absolute merger between the green transition and authoritarianism . . . [opening] new doors to neocolonialism.”
Aleksandra Bulatović, an activist and criminal law professor who was interrogated by the police for more than three hours, said police told her the investigation and arrests were sparked by activists’ social media posts calling for continued resistance against the mine.
Police told her they began to take action after an Eco Guard post on August 15, which said “the next blockades will be organised in several hundred places at the same time . . . and will lead to a total collapse of the system”.
Bulatović said Belgrade had no proof of any actual plot to topple the government.
Eco Guard leader Bojan Simišić claimed Belgrade was doing the west’s bidding.
“Vučić is a delivery unit,” he said. “The westerners back him up in a crisis. We are funded by membership alone and run on a shoestring. We all have day jobs. We are not backed up by any embassies at all. No support from the EU. No support from the west.”
The activists insist they will continue their protests “until victory” against the projects. “There will be no mines,” they added in the August 15 post.