Serbų tūkstančiai eina į gatves aplinkosaugos ir antivyriausybinėse demonstracijose

Thousands took to the streets in Serbia to protest against the government and a project by the Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto to set up a lithium mine, rašo Cristianas Gherasimas.

The protestors filled the streets for the past two weekends, but the number of those taking part has increased significantly over the past week.

Their ire has been directed towards a recently enacted law which paves the way for land expropriation for public interest projects, with environmental activists believing it would speed up Rio Tinto's environmentally damaging project to open a lithium mine in western Serbia, a key mineral, essential for manufacturing batteries for electric cars.

This past few days saw swarms of protesters gathering on the main bridge of the capital city of Belgrade, chanting "Rio Tinto, leave the Drina River!" and carrying slogans with messages such as "Stop investing, save nature!" or "For land, water and air".

On the other hand, the Anglo-Australian company has promised to meet all Serbian and European environmental standards, but environmentalists say the $2.4 billion lithium mine project will irreversibly pollute land and drinking water resources in the area.

The protests come ahead of next year’s parliamentary and presidential elections. The protesters accused the government's authoritarian policy and President Aleksandar Vucic's Progressive Party of backing a law that eliminates the 50% plus one quorum for validating referendums.

The issue of business investments and rather Russian and Chinese influence in Serbia has been the topic of a study carried out GLOBSEC Policy Institute which stated that Serbia is the most susceptible to Russian and Chinese interference in both politics and business.

reklama

The index follows a two-year project backed by the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center, analyzing vulnerable points, targeted by foreign influence, in eight countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.

Serbia is the most vulnerable to Russian and Chinese influence and receives 66 points out of 100.

Kinija ne kartą nusitaikė į Vakarų Balkanų regioną, bandydama padidinti savo įtaką. Specialistų teigimu, Kinijos vadovai siekia padidinti įtaką valstybėse, kurios dar nevykdo ES teisės.

Pekinas bando užsitikrinti įvairius išteklius net kai kuriose ES valstybėse narėse. Naujausi Kinijos veiksmai pabrėžia, pavyzdžiui, susidomėjimą Pirėjo (Graikija) ir Zadaro (Kroatija) uostus paversti Kinijos prekybos su Europa centrais. Tam pačiam tikslui buvo pasirašyta sutartis dėl greitojo geležinkelio tiesimo tarp Budapešto ir Belgrado, kuris susijungs su Pirėjo uostu, taip įtvirtinant Kinijos produktų patekimą į Europą.

On the other hand Russian is more interested in Western Balkans to disrupt the EU-NATO integration process there.

„Pažeidžiamiausios šalys dažniausiai yra tos, kurios palaiko glaudesnius dvišalius santykius su Rusija ir kurių visuomenė yra labiau prorusiška ir palankesnė prorusiškam naratyvui“, – mano Dominika Hajdu iš GLOBSEC.

Pasidalinkite šiuo straipsniu: