Directorate for Diaspora Funneled Funds to Right-Wing Organizations

Belgrade (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

In 2023, payments of several thousand euros each – withdrawn from the state budget – were repeatedly made to the commercial bank accounts of various right-wing organizations, some of which have ties to President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party, Radio Free Europe reported on July 1.

The State Budget Act, however, requires any funds released to be forwarded to accounts with the Treasury Administration, thus enabling the tracking of budget expenditures, the article explained, adding that the controversial payments were also made to organizations promoting extreme nationalism on social media, as well as to associations already under scrutiny for refusing to release their financial records.

As one of its sources, the article cites the State Auditing Institution’s report on the operation of the Serbian Government’s Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora. Until mid-May 2024, said body was headed by Arnaud Gouillon (Serbian: Arno Gujon), a Serbian citizen of French descent often found in the media spotlight, who spent his youth as a member of France’s far-right Identitarian Bloc.

Gouillon arrived in Serbia 20 years ago as a self-professed humanitarian. In 2015, he received Serbian citizenship. In 2020, he became a state official and, in 2023, he joined the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.

After stepping down as leader of the Diaspora Directorate, Gouillon was put in charge of the Serbian Government’s newly-founded Office for Public and Cultural Diplomacy. According to a press release, the body’s job is “organizing, implementing and supporting activities that present Serbian culture, history, spirituality, art, language, science and sport to the world,” a mission similar to that of the Directorate he previously headed.

Meanwhile, the Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has yet to receive a new director.

Radio Free Europe went on to report that the new Office for Public and Cultural Diplomacy was founded with funds drawn from the budget reserve. On May 16, the Serbian Cabinet passed a decision redirecting EUR3.1 million of funds designated for capital projects toward the creation of the new body assigned to Gouillon.

So far, Radio Free Europe has been unable to get answers from the Cabinet regarding why the Office was created when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs already has an entire sector dedicated to this purpose, or whether there were any other candidates for the position of Office’s chief aside from Gouillon.