Freedom house
For the first time since 2003 the Freedom House hasn't ranked Serbia among "semi-consolidated democracies" in its report, but has rather put it in the category of "hybride regimes" based on authoritarianism as a result of incomplete democratic change.
The "Nations in Transit" study, involving 29 states of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and East Europe, says that Montenegro, too, has made a step back into the category of "hybrid regimes," while Kosovo and North Macedonia are the only two states in the Western Balkan region that have made progress.
The term "hybrid regime" refers to the states whose governments can enable political repression and call elections at the same time, where democratic elections are weak and challenges in defending political rights and civic freedoms strong.
In the Balkans, years of increasing state capture, abuse of power, and "strongman tactics" employed by Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia and Milo Djukanovic in Montenegro have tipped those countries over the edge - for the first time since 2003, they are no longer categorized as democracies in Nations in Transit," the Freedom House says in the report, adding that negative indicators in democratic reforms and methods of rule have been recorded in Serbia for five consecutive years.
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