Diaspora Office gave 250,000 euros to groups close to SNS
BIRN found that at least 250,000 euros went to organizations in North Macedonia, Bosnia and Serbia that back the SNS or promote right-wing views.
At least 250,000 euros in three years: that is how much the Diaspora Office at the Foreign Ministry paid to Serbian diaspora organizations in North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, according to an investigation by the BIRN portal published on October 17. Among the recipients are associations that openly promote the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), as well as groups that, according to the findings, push right-wing rhetoric or glorify war criminals.
The investigation is signed by Dragana Prica Kovacevic, Dejan Rakita and Zorana Gazdovska. Beta ran the story the same day at 4:46 p.m., and its headline names the Foreign Ministry, not the Office, as the payer. BIRN’s headline says “more than 250,000 euros”, while the body of its text says “at least 250,000 euros”.
What happened in Kumanovo on May 23?
The investigation opens with a rally in Kumanovo held on the same day as the large student protest at Slavija in Belgrade, May 23. Several hundred people turned out, and many wore T-shirts with the SNS slogan “Serbia is winning”. The organizer is the association Peace, Harmony, Stability, founded in 2022. BIRN notes that its name resembles the SNS election slogan from the same year, “Peace, Stability, Vucic”.
The association’s president, Maja Denkovska, told Newsmax Balkan that the rally was organized “to give support to the President of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Aleksandar Vucic”. She declined to speak to BIRN, citing health problems.
The money arrived before the rally. Just 38 days earlier, the association received 3,400 euros from the Diaspora Office for Orthodox religious projects, as Nova ekonomija first reported. A few weeks later it was granted another 2,500 euros for an initiative to preserve the Cyrillic script. In April last year the same association arranged free buses and sandwiches to take people from Kumanovo to an SNS rally in Belgrade.
Who are the other recipients?
In North Macedonia, BIRN singles out two more beneficiaries. The Serbian Cultural Center in Skopje, whose president Vasilka Kitanovic regularly posts SNS content, has received 84,500 euros since 2023. The Community of Serbs in Macedonia from Bitola, led by Zoran Zugic, received 21,300 euros. Kitanovic did not respond to requests for comment. Zugic gave a substantive reply and denied that the money was received for political purposes:
“These are exclusively projects related to culture, folklore, marking historical dates, sporting events and the like”
He added that these are activities with no connection to political events. BIRN states that Zugic regularly criticizes the student protests in Serbia and the organization CRTA, and has promoted content denying the genocide in Srebrenica.
The list continues in Serbia:
- the association Izrazajnost received 23,800 euros in 2023-2024 for two projects about the Cyrillic script, and its representative is the actor Milan Bosiljcic, who signed a statement of support for the SNS in 2023
- the association Jeremija, co-founded by Bosiljcic’s daughter Sara, received 9,400 euros in 2024 for a language camp
- CEROB, the Belgrade Center for Education and Development of Youth, received almost 34,000 euros since 2023 for camps for young people from the diaspora; the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) reported in late 2023 that SNS activists working in call centers were paid in cash at CEROB’s office
- the Association of Students of Republika Srpska in Serbia received 13,600 euros for two projects, and its members were filmed in 2024 at the SNS call center at the Novi Sad Fair
- the Association of War Veterans of the Serbian Lands 1990-1999 received 8,500 euros last year for summer camps; its leader Zeljko Vukelic sent children aged 11 to 15 to military camps in Russia in 2017
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the investigation names the Banja Luka Serbian Assembly Bastionik, which received about 34,000 euros for six projects between 2023 and 2025. In August it invited “patriots” to a memorial service for Ratko Mladic, sentenced to life in prison for genocide and war crimes, calling him “our general”. The organization Jadovno 1941 received more than 13,500 euros for a website about the victims of the Gospic-Jadovno-Pag camps. In 2023 both signed a demand to ban an LGBTQ+ gathering in Banja Luka, and in 2024 they called for the withdrawal of a draft law on protection from domestic violence. The gathering was banned and the law was withdrawn.
What do analysts and civil society groups say?
Political scientist Dusko Radosavljevic told BIRN that these money flows reflect the SNS’s roots in the Serbian Radical Party, of which Vucic was a member until 2008:
“This is a regime rooted in the Serbian Radical Party, one of the most repugnant political creations in Serbia.”
Banja Luka political analyst Tanja Topic sees the funding as part of Belgrade’s influence in Bosnia. “Belgrade gets loyal and devoted citizens in another country, part of which it claims as its own anyway,” Topic told BIRN.
Milica Pralica of the Banja Luka organization Ostra nula calls for transparency and oversight of how the money is distributed and what it achieves:
“We need clear criteria, publicly available data and equal accountability from everyone who uses public money, regardless of which country it comes from.”
Who answered BIRN’s questions?
Neither the Foreign Ministry nor the Diaspora Office responded to requests for comment. Of the recipients named, only Zugic gave a substantive answer; Denkovska declined to talk, and the others did not respond.
