SPC
Metropolitan Justin dismissed
The Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) dismissed Metropolitan Justin from managing the Diocese of Žička. It is expected that in May the Holy Synod of Bishops will approve that decision and send Justin into retirement, and perhaps take away his episcopal rank or even exclude him from the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The accusations are serious - alleged embezzlement of Diocese money, sale of church property against the rules, establishment of dubious companies. The Synod notes "with regret" that Justin has recently been "persistently misleading the public" that it is a matter of political persecution.
Last summer, Justin was among the six bishops who signed a letter of support for the student protests. He allowed the students from Novi Pazar to spend the night in Studenica, and he also supported the ongoing protests of paors.
In one of the letters, he stated that "power was not given for the sake of violence, but for the sake of service, that abuse of force cannot bring peace - it can only deepen wounds and leave a scar".
The decision of the Synod was welcomed by the critical public as new proof that the top of the SPC is flattering the secular regime. "It's not any church, it's an extension of the mafia," Vukašin Milićević, a priest until recently, who was expelled from the Serbian Orthodox Church by the decision of the Church Court, told N1.
Some sources from the SPC speculate that the Diocese of Žička - the largest in Serbia - could be divided into two parts in order to weaken it.
The inspection of the business of the Diocese has allegedly been ongoing since October 2023, that is, a year before the massive student uprising. However, neither the SPC nor the secular authorities have heard why the prosecutor's office is not dealing with the alleged embezzlement.
The protest of the poor
Tractors on the road
From Topola to Ravna Gora and beyond, according to Mrčajevci, farmers set up barricades on the roads on Tuesday (February 24) demanding that the state ban the import of milk and other improvements in agriculture. It was blocked across Serbia at dozens of locations, including the international road Belgrade-Timisoara.
During the two-week protest, Agriculture Minister Dragan Glamočić accused some of the farmers of "playing politics", said that he is always ready for an agreement and that Serbia provides the largest subsidies for milk. The new bait should be an invitation (announced for Monday, March 2) for subsidies of 18.000 dinars per hectare for those who cultivate up to one hundred hectares.
Glamočić's earlier meeting with "representatives of more than a hundred associations" added fuel to the fire, as reported. It's just that the real paori haven't heard of those associations.
"These are farms and associations that they created purely so that they have someone to invite to fake a conversation," said Dragan Kleut, president of the Association of Farmers' Associations of Banat, for "Vreme". He describes the situation in Serbian agriculture as "pure robbery" and reminds that in 2023, the government signed an agreement to regulate the milk and grain market. "In three years, they haven't budged from a standstill," adds Kleut.
As Vreme goes to press, there are no signs of letting up and it is unclear how long the tractor blockades could last.
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United Group
Nothing new, for now.
On Tuesday (February 24), the top people of N1 had a special visit. For the first time, Brent Sadler (75), a well-known CNN reporter, and since a few days ago the "chief executive editor" of news at Adria News Network (ANN) came to his new role.
ANN is a new structure of the United Group under which their media from the former Yugoslavia are now housed. Sadler is the editorial superior of all.
According to "Vremen" sources, the meeting was routine. It was promised that nothing "for now" will change in N1, and the same applies to Nova S, Danas and Radar.
"Of course we don't believe anything in them", says one of the journalists of the mentioned television for "Vreme". "And of course they now promise that nothing will change, but of course they will."
But no one can predict exactly what and how. As Rade Veljanovski, a retired professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences, tells us, it is naive to think that so many mechanisms of power and money are set in motion, and that in the end everything remains the same. "It seems to me that a final showdown is being prepared in which the government would completely suppress the possibility of independent journalism," says Veljanovski. The government is under pressure and does not want critical voices to survive until the next elections, he adds.
For now, according to United Group media editors and journalists, the audience can still be safe on their channels - they are working as they always have.
Serbia and the EU
Give what you give
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Serbia would agree to EU membership without veto rights. More important than that, he said, are the common market and the free movement of goods, capital and people.
The idea of a "multi-speed EU" in which not everyone has the same rights and obligations is not new. But it is new, writes the Frankfurt paper, that it is publicly supported by Vučić and his senior peer Edi Rama. And behind the scenes, the newspaper writes, they are not opposed in other capitals of the Western Balkans either.
In theory, second-class membership in the EU, without the right of veto, should prevent a "new Viktor Orban" from being asked at the table in Brussels. It is also believed that EU members would thus more easily agree to expansion into the Balkans or Ukraine.
In practice, the founding treaties of the EU do not allow unequal members, a senior source from the German government told DW. After all, with such membership "we would punish countries that implemented reforms, and reward those that did not".
The fact that Vučić is now "renouncing the veto" should be understood as a tactical move of flattery while the regime is doing everything contrary to the EU's achievements, says Srđan Majstorović, president of the Board of Directors of the Center for European Policies.
"This regime did not fall into the trap of Milosevic's regime, but learned an important lesson - to stay in power for a long time, you need some kind of international legitimacy," he adds.
State secrets
General at home
It's not every day that military generals are condemned for allegedly divulging state secrets. Then again, the public learned about the case of the retired general - Lt. Col. Milosav Simović in a bizarre way - from Niš cardiac surgeon Dragan Milić, president of the Movement for the Decentralization of Serbia.
Then the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Negotin confirmed to "Vreme" that it had entered into a plea agreement with Simović and that he is serving six months of house arrest without a trace. The High Court in Nis accepted the agreement.
In the answer, signed by the chief prosecutor Dragan Pejkić, it is stated that the convicted person "unauthorizedly made available to unknown persons successively the data entrusted to him in the work" marked "strictly confidential" and "state secret".
The VJT in Negotin did not answer the question of "Vremena" to whom exactly and what information Simović gave. They promised to deliver the verdict, but so far it has not happened.
Simović's lawyer, Mirko Krstović, says that the general did not reveal the secret, but it was transferred to him that, after his retirement, he transferred part of the archive with confidential files to his house. And that, the lawyer says, he did because there was no time to sort through the archives at work.
"Looking at the moment in which all this happened, due to General Simović's express attitude that he does not want to compromise the army and the state in any way, consciously putting them before his family and himself, we decided to accept the offered Agreement", Krstović told Južne vesti.
Six months in prison is the lightest punishment for revealing a state secret. Simović, former commander of the Army, was dismissed in June last year. He officially retired on November 3, his 59th birthday.
photo: ap photo...
Mexico
War on the streets
Mexico is peaceful again, claims the country's president, Claudia Scheinbaum, after ten thousand soldiers were sent to quell the chaos caused by drug cartels in the west of the country.
It began at dawn on Sunday (February 22) when army commandos killed notorious drug lord El Mench, real name Nemesio Oseguere Cervantes, 59. It was obtained with the help of the American services, which normally offered 15 million dollars for information about one of the most wanted mobsters in the world, a former police officer.
El Mencho allegedly died while being seriously wounded while being transferred from Tapalpa to Mexico City. Then a mini-war broke out between his cartel Jalisco New Generation and the Force of Order. At least 25 members of the Mexican National Guard and about fifty other people were killed.
Eyewitnesses spoke of "war scenes", hundreds of barricades, arson and smoke. The chaos was used to rob banks indiscriminately. The Jalisco crime syndicate is Mexico's most brutal mafia. They do not shy away from the murders of policemen, judges, politicians and journalists. But now, observers say, President Scheinbaum appears to be making good on a promise made to US President Donald Trump, who has blamed Mexico for fentanyl exports and crime.
Street carnage also took place in Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco province and the second largest metropolis in Mexico. And right there, in barely four months, the matches of the World Cup in football should be played.
