Opposition Movement Delivers Testimony on Pressure to Attend Ruling Party Rallies to ODIHR

the Serbian Progressive Party, June 2 2024 (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)

On Oct. 8, the Get Going for Change movement delivered more than 500 statements to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Belgrade in which citizens, mostly employed in the public sector, attest that they were threatened with job loss if they did not attend the rallies of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party and Socialist Party of Serbia.

Nikola Stankovic, a spokesman for Get Going for Change, told reporters in front of the OSCE offices that the public sector was especially vulnerable and that the largest number of reports came from state employees -- those working in education, health care, child care, mines. "We want to put a stop to that and we expect international organizations to help Serbia do so," Stankovic said.

Since April, he said, Get Going for Chance has met with several thousand citizens facing blackmail, threats and pressure from superiors threatening that they would lose their jobs, that their wages would be cut, or that they would be transferred to remote posts if they did not attend the assemblies. The 500 statements delivered to ODIHR came from people who did not demand anonymity and who gave permission to be named.

"We are bringing and handing these to ODIHR as an organization fighting for the freedom of choice because, if the people are not free, if they are not free of all forms of pressure, if their livelihoods are on the line, they cannot express themselves freely and vote freely," Stankovic said, adding that this was not just a matter of elections and who would get votes, but the fact that people were facing threats to their basic human and civic rights.