Vienna: Serb group signs up voters, KRIK reports

The investigative outlet KRIK published a report on October 21, four days before the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 25, by journalists Milica Vojinovic, Bojana Jovanovic and Stevan Dojcinovic, built on secret recordings made in Vienna. According to the report, the Association of Serbs in Austria fills out requests to vote abroad without authorization, while campaigning for Aleksandar Vucic, and the Serbian embassy turns down applications from some citizens. City data from early 2025 puts the number of Serbs living in Vienna at about 100,000, second only to Chicago.

What did citizens in Vienna record?

The association is located on Kirchstettengasse, about 15 meters from the Serbian bakery “Pekarica” and roughly a half-hour walk from the city center. According to KRIK, the recordings were made by Serbian citizens who live in Vienna. One shows a man who found the embassy closed, walks into the bakery and asks about registering. A worker, as the report describes it, takes him to adjoining rooms and hands him over to a man named Andrej. They ask the visitor for his passport, his father’s name, and his addresses in Serbia and Austria, and other applications and passport copies lie on the table.

After the sign-up, Andrej can be heard on the recording instructing colleagues: “Come on, pack these people a lighter, a pen, some candy, what have you got?” The bags being handed out carry the SNS logo. The whole procedure, KRIK says, took a couple of minutes.

In a phone call recorded by another person in Vienna, an association employee says they only help people who support Vucic. A young man who came in person was received only after he said he was not for the Student List. By law, KRIK points out, voter requests from Austria may be accepted only by the Serbian embassy in Vienna.

Who is Andrej Leskovac and what does he say?

KRIK identifies Andrej Leskovac, son of politician Rade Leskovac, as the man running the operation. In 2009 Andrej Leskovac ran for mayor of Vukovar and finished sixth of seven candidates. He holds no formal role at the association, KRIK writes, but spends time there.

The reporters visited him last week. He dismissed the claim that the association registers voters: “Our people all register at the embassy.” He made no secret of the association’s political leanings:

“What the political opinion in the association is, let me tell you right away: everybody here loves Vucic. That is why Vucic will win, because he is the real president.”

At the entrance they were met by Zeljko Vojnovic, who introduced himself as security and a former boxer, wearing a vest that read “Vucic team Serbia.” Leskovac said Vojnovic had brought 50 such vests from Serbia. Leskovac denied any link between the association and the SNS or the embassy, even though Vojnovic, asked about the vest, answered: “SNS association, yes, we are.”

What does the lawyer say, and how did the embassy fare?

Lawyer Vladimir Tupanjac, who monitors the elections with CRTA, told KRIK that every voter must submit a request in person through a diplomatic or consular mission, and that the competent municipal or city administration in Serbia decides on it. “Voting rights must not depend on party support,” Tupanjac said.

The other side of the story is citizens whom the embassy turned away. Jelena Zivanovic Valtner, who has lived in Vienna since 2009, was told her request was “incomplete.” She sent complaints to the Republic Electoral Commission and the embassy, yet the request was rejected twice, with no explanation. “As was required, I sent the consular department a completed and personally signed request,” she says.

KRIK emailed its questions to the embassy and was referred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which did not respond. Ambassador Marko Blagojevic declined to talk to the journalists.

With the vote four days away, neither the embassy nor the ministry, according to KRIK, had answered questions about the rejected applications by the time the report was published.