Glisic Blames Blockaders for Wildfires in Serbia

Minister for Public Investment Darko Glisic, an official of the Serbian Progressive Party, said during an appearance on Pink TV on August 27 that student blockaders and the citizens who support them are responsible for the wildfires that hit Serbia this summer. Footage of the statement was first published by the Nova portal at 10:40 a.m., and Vreme carried it at 12:06 p.m.

Glisic pinned the blame on a group he referred to on air as the “blockader scum,” claiming they were behind the fires that had broken out over the past year to a year and a half. He did not cite a single specific case, name, court proceeding, or piece of evidence to support the claim.

What the Minister Actually Said

The statement came unprompted, during a conversation that was not devoted solely to the topic of the fires. The minister said:

“The only ones responsible for the fires over the past year, year and a half, are that blockader scum who went around setting buildings on fire.”

He named Valjevo as a place where this had allegedly happened, adding that similar things had occurred in “many other places.” Later in the same appearance he added an accusation that went beyond the fires:

“In some other towns they opened fire, attacked, and made attempts on people’s property and lives.”

For neither claim did the minister specify which city, which incident, or which case before law enforcement he was referring to.

Context: A Month-Long Fight Against Fire

Wildfires have been raging in Serbia for more than a month, with the longest and most difficult firefighting effort centered on Deliblato Sands, a protected natural area whose recovery, according to earlier estimates, could take up to ten years. Alongside firefighters and volunteer fire brigades, student blockaders, according to both outlets, worked on the ground side by side with professional crews and organized aid collection for the affected areas. That fact stands in direct contradiction to the minister’s claim that the group is behind starting the fires rather than fighting them.

According to Vreme, requests for firefighting assistance from the European Union and Russia came late. Over the same period, the opposition has accused the government of failing to respond to the spreading fires in time and of failing to assess the scale of the danger early enough.

Opposition Reaction

The Serbia Center party (SRCE) responded to Glisic’s statement by calling the accusations “shameful and deeply senseless,” made, the party said, at a moment when Serbia is witnessing an ecological catastrophe and a fire in Deliblato Sands. In its statement, the party went further and placed blame for the course of the firefighting effort itself on the government:

“The regime, driven solely by cheap pre-election calculations and a sick sense of pride, spent weeks refusing to request adequate and timely assistance from the European Union, thereby knowingly allowing the fire to spiral out of control and destroy an invaluable natural resource.”

Aside from Glisic’s remarks on Pink TV, no further comment or announcement that the claims would be forwarded to the relevant authorities had come from the Serbian Progressive Party by the time this article was published.

What Comes Next

The accusation that students and the citizens who support them are responsible for the fires falls into the category of claims that, absent a name, a date, or a case before prosecutors, remain nothing more than a statement made on camera. Whether Minister Glisic will back up his claims with a specific case, or with a report to the relevant authorities, has not been announced so far.