Get Going for Change Movement Says Ruling Party Blackmailing Public Sector Employees into Partaking in Its Rallies

Rally in Nis, May 18 2025 (BETAPHOTO/Saša Djordjevic)

The Get Going for Change movement announced on Oct. 3 that, based on hundreds of reports from citizens from all parts of Serbia, it had recorded and systematically processed evidence of pressures on employees in the public sector, aimed at forcing them to attend rallies organized by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.

"The biggest number of reports come from healthcare institutions, public enterprises and educational institutions, sectors of key importance for citizens. Pressures have been recorded there which manifest as threats of layoffs, non-extension of employment contracts, transfers to worse jobs, salary cuts, and as demands for employees to give money or use their own funds to finance going to party rallies," the movement underscored.

The movement representatives announced that they would send a complete collective report, with the evidence and a methodological annex attached, to international organizations including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), with a request for an urgent assessment of the scope and nature of the pressures, as well as recommendations for the protection of employees' and voters' rights.

"Reports have been coming in from big cities, but also from smaller towns throughout Serbia, which shows that these are not individual cases, but rather a systemic pattern of political abuse of public resources," said Kreni-Promeni.