When the regulators are raised: How does the propaganda machine “extinguish” the crisis in Serbia?

Although discussions of “colour revolutions” in Serbia surfaced in early November, significant attempts to delegitimize protests became apparent on November 22. Ana Brnabić, Parliament Speaker, then characterized roadblocks due to fatalities in Novi Sad as “well-coordinated from abroad”.

A couple days later, the narrative intensified. Media outlets began comparing Serbian protests to those against Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting the opposition seeks to “overthrow the government following the Ukrainian model” sourced from the “same power centers”. They noted similarities in the use of red paint and handprints, both in recent Serbian protests and in anti-war demonstrations against Moscow. Another comparison drew parallels to the 2016 “colorful revolution” protests in then Macedonia, triggered by the president’s pardoning of individuals involved in a wiretapping scandal. Finding common themes in the use of paint and roadblocks, government officials and mainstream media concluded that certain elements sought to “destroy Serbia through a colour revolution like Macedonia”.

As “colour revolutions” were attributed not only to opposition politicians but also NGOs, recycled and new manipulations about “foreign mercenaries” emerged. This time, they were linked to Donald Trump’s election victory, suggesting an “ensuing panic among NGOs” in Serbia due to the Trump administration potentially cutting off funds from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and other supporting organizations for “toppling the government”.

 

State links in the chain of manipulation

 

The primary actors in this new campaign against the opposition and NGOs are senior state officials.

“This is all part of a hybrid war against Serbia. Remember, every tragedy from Ribnikar, Dubona, to the tragedy in Novi Sad has been exploited to attack Serbia. It’s always the same approach – Putin as a murderer, Vučić as a murderer, you are murderers, we are murderers, hands are bloody, hands are bloody, it’s always the same”, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin stated on November 25 during an appearance on TV Pink.

The following day, on the Public Broadcaster’s central news, Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabić echoed similar sentiments.

“Miroslav Aleksić was yanking away microphones, Radomir Lazović was putting up this nonsense, which symbolizes some sort of a colour revolution elsewhere. So, there’s nothing hidden, it’s a clear message: Look, someone from abroad told us what to do, gave us symbols, made posters, and said – create chaos. So, there’s nothing, they didn’t invent these bloody hands on their own, we’ve seen this in many countries around the world”, Brnabić said.

However, after Vulin and Brnabić’s statements, President Aleksandar Vučić highlighted that the era of “colour revolutions” had passed, partly due to Trump’s administration, which was expected to include billionaire and social media X owner Elon Musk.

“Let me tell you, they think the era of colour revolutions still exists. The era of deceitful colour revolutions has passed; they are no longer popular anywhere in the world and cannot succeed. A new era is arriving, and I am confident that great work will be done by Elon Musk and Ramaswami, and if you want, (Robert F.) Kennedy Jr. and many others. I am fully convinced of this, but some will remain without their allowances, some will remain without, as Vučić says, “a serf’s portion of cracklings’”, Vučić stated.

Two days after Vučić’s comments, a Serbian Progressive Party MP Vladimir Đukanović further explained how Trump’s potential return to power could signify the end for non-governmental organizations.

“As soon as the administration changes completely in America, meaning if Trump’s administration comes, and it happens as announced, it will entirely cut off the funding for these insane non-governmental organizations that aim to destabilize systems disfavored by the United States, including this NED, and I don’t know what else we had, that National Endowment for Democracy. Then you had those, not NDI, but NDI is also an institution that deals with elections, Democratic Party Institute, but they had these various USAIDs and so on”, Đukanović specified.

President Vučić’s claim that the era of “deceitful colour revolutions” was over was supported by Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, stating that “there will be no revolutions in Serbia”. The Vučić-Vulin duo particularly addressed the “Macedonian scenario”.

“Please, everyone, look at the recordings from 2016. The exact same scenario in North Macedonia, back then it was Macedonia, it has since changed its name, and of course, those who were painting lost power and so forth. That’s not very important. Look, it’s always done in the same way, they painted the main square in Skopje, always talking about the same themes, and the master has always been the same, always the master and sponsor was the same, and the victims were the people against whom such colorful revolutions, as they were called back then, or colour revolutions as we call them today, only brought misfortune to those people”, President Vučić remarked on December 3.

That same day, on the TV B92 program “Fokus”, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin commented: “In every textbook on colour revolutions, it’s made clear that if you are a minority, you must be very aggressive. In Novi Sad, they replicated the Macedonian model of painting squares. The Macedonians had their reasons back then, today’s protestors have theirs, and the model has also borrowed from Belarusian and Hong Kong tactics, including creating lists to target politicians, police officers, and state officials”.

 

Witting proliferators

 

The messages from government representatives have also been amplified by individuals who no longer hold state positions but continue to analyze events in alignment with official narratives on influential media platforms. Prominent figures like Dragan J. Vučićević, Editor-in-Chief of Informer, and former state secretary of the Ministry of Interior Dijana Hrkalović, have been particularly vocal.

On TV Pink, Vučićević criticized the opposition, saying: “What do they know other than to be mercenaries, to destroy their own country for the sake of foreign foundations and organizations, various NEDs and others? That’s why they must access some funds quickly, now that the Americans are cutting them off; they hope to grab Serbian money, but no, Serbia won’t let them”.

The former State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, commenting on the protests following the accident in Novi Sad, targeted non-governmental organizations as “foreign mercenaries” just as she did in August this year, during the height of protests against lithium mining. On the TV show “Hit tvit” on TV Pink, Hrkalović, like a few months ago, referred to a Chinese report on the activities of the American organization NED.

“China has issued a report saying that NED is preparing a colour revolution, Maidanization, that is, a civil, fratricidal war in Serbia. And here NED pays Civic Initiatives, that’s Savo Manojlović, and they were funded by SSP, Đilas, Pavle Grbović, KRIK, and RERI, Rajić Jovan”, said Hrkalović, then adding that NED also finances the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, BIRN and, alongside them, CRTA.

 

Channels for spreading manipulations

 

Mainstream media outlets have not only given space to government representatives and pundits to air their views during prime time, but have actively participated in disseminating the same manipulative narratives.

The same manipulative narratives were also placed within the news program. On the central news of TV Pink, on November 30th, the host Bojan Dacović introduced a segment with the words: “With the arrival of the new American administration to power, as Elon Musk announced, the costs allocated from the American budget for the National Endowment for Democracy will be reduced. This could also affect non-governmental organizations in Serbia, which are largely supported by opposition parties that want to provoke colour revolutions in our country”.

A few days later, echoing President Vučić’s references to a “Macedonian scenario”, TV Pink anchor Ivan Golušin reported: “The attempt to spark a colour revolution in Serbia closely resembles the Macedonian scenario from 2016. Experts say that the blueprint is practically copied, originating from the same source with intentions to destabilize the country”.

Statements by government representatives were also covered by other media. Two days after the statement by the parliament president that the blockades were “a well-coordinated action from abroad”, Novosti, Kurir, Alo!, Informer, Republika, and Politika wrote that “the performance with red paint was also seen against Putin” suggesting that the opposition, following the “Ukrainian recipe” aims to “topple the government” according to “instructions coming from the same power centers”.

The same manipulations were later propagated by the Serbian-language Russian portal Pravda, identified by research from the French government agency Viginum and Radio Free Europe as part of a “larger Russian disinformation campaign”.

About the “panic” in the opposition and NGO sector and how Vučić “was right” when he “predicted” that Musk “is turning off the tap to NED, which finances colour revolutions”, was written by the portals Pink, Kurir, Informer, Novosti, Alo!, Republika, B92, Srbija Danas, and Euronews. 

There was also space for the thesis that “the opposition, following the model of the Macedonian colour revolution, wants to stop Serbia”. Through statements by Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin, as well as “analyses”, these manipulations were disseminated and transmitted by Pink, Kurir, Informer, Politika, Novosti, Alo!, and B92.

 

Bot Network

 

The narrative of “colour revolutions” also permeated the social network X, where the account Detektor laži (Detector of Lies) has been active in posting content suggesting that the opposition is conducting a “colour revolution similar to those attempted against Putin”, aiming for a “new October 5th” and a “Serbian Maidan”.

These manipulations are also visible in dozens of posts by other users who either shared Detector of lies’ posts or wrote similar ones themselves. Among these posts are those tagged with “#vucic” or the President’s account.

The MP from the ruling party, Vladimir Đukanović, also contributed, pointing out on this network the “attempts to carry out colour revolutions”, emphasizing that he is a “counter-revolutionary”, and sending the message “stop to colour revolutions”.

***

That such propaganda “works” is also shown by CRTA’s public opinion research, according to which even every third citizen sees non-governmental organizations as organizations that represent the interests of foreign countries and work against their own country.

As the discourse on “attempts at colour revolutions” led by the opposition and NGOs intensified, MPs from Aleksandar Vulin’s The Movement of Socialists submitted the Bill on the Special Registry of Agents of Foreign Influence to the National Assembly.

According to this draft law, “agents of foreign influence” include “all associations and nonprofit organizations that predominantly finance or otherwise support foreign states, their institutions, international and foreign organizations, foreign nationals, or registered non-governmental organizations financed from abroad”, This proposal, reminiscent of Russian tactics, suggests a continuation of the same strategies used to deal with political dissenters, echoing the era when Slobodan Milošević equated himself with the state. Today, the name has changed, but the methods remain strikingly similar.