The state organising NGO’s which are not devoted to their mission but serve the goals of some officials and ruling parties are nothing new but the number of such organizations has increased in Serbia to the point of concern, the head of the Policy Center (Centar za prakticnu politiku), Dragan Popovic, wrote in an article for Serbia’s ‘Danas’.

Such organizations are usually established for three reasons – for simulating support for the government and its initiatives, in other words, for attacking those who oppose the government, for carrying out projects that require the participation of the civil sector (such as proposing candidates for certain independent institutions, commissions or working groups) and for participating in government tenders where budget funds are distributed.

After the unanimous resistance in 2017 and 2018 by nearly all relevant expert organizations and citizen associations in Serbia to the constitutional changes concerning the judiciary, support for the Ministry of Justice’s proposal came in March 2018 from 40 civil society organizations, among which are associations of hairdressers, beauticians as well as organizations established by public officials.

Once this proved to be ineffective and amateurish, the Association of judges and prosecutors was established, one of the most active and most important pro-government associations which has the goal to support the government’s stance and to carry out active campaigns against its colleagues in the judiciary who are fighting for the dignity of the judicial and prosecutorial profession.

Similar support for the government, this time regarding media freedom, was provided by the Public Policy Institute, founded by a close associate of Aleksandar Vucic – Vladimir ‘Beba’ Popovic.

That organisation is known for negative articles targeting those who criticise Vucic but also the regime of Milo Djukanovic in Montenegro. The Institute received in 2018 the entire amount of money the Ministry for Labour, Veteran and Social issues had available for the improvement of the status of seniors.

As for freedom of expression, the government also established media and journalist associations which are run by people close to it.

Associations such as RAB, Fijeta, PROUNS or The Journalist Association of Nis delegate most of the representatives into local commissions which decide on projects co-financing media content of public interest. Those tenders are burdened by numerous scandals and suspicious decisions which are regularly pointed out by members of media and journalist associations.

Some of those fake associations were established to balance out serious investigative organizations. The Centre for Investigating Corruption (Centar za istraživanje korupcije), for example, mostly focuses on investigating opposition parties and politicians.

An association called “Council for monitoring, human rights and the fight against corruption Transparentnost” (Savet za monitoring, ljudska prava i borbu protiv korupcije Transparentnost) was established in Trstenik by Marijo Spasic, an official of the Ministry of Health.

This association is mainly focused on attacks against critics of the regime or independent bodies while misusing the name of the reputable organisation Transparentnost Serbia (Transparency Serbia).

Associations like this serve the purpose of proposing people close to the government for posts in various bodies, commissions or working groups. Nebojsa Krstic, an analyst known for his pro-government stances, was proposed as a member of the Board of Radio-television Serbia by an unknown association called Center for Social Research (Centar za drustvena istrazivanja). The trend of forming citizen associations that are close to the government can especially be found among organisations of the extreme right.

The National Avant-garde, (Nacionalna avangarda), an organisation established in May 2017, already a year later deserved that the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and several other ministers open its ‘Toward a safe Serbia’ (Ka bezbednoj Srbiji) conference.

The Serbian Right (Srpska desnica), the organization of former official of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Miso Vasic, is often engaged when there is a need for opposition gatherings to be attacked. Members of this one and similar extremist groups often use social media networks to threaten individuals who express criticism but none of them faced punishment so far.

The inflation of fake citizen associations which have to goal to defend the government or corrupt the distribution of public funds seriously jeopardise the freedom of association in Serbia.

By creating a parallel civil sector, the public discussions as well as the entire process of civic participation is being faked, which could seriously endanger the citizen’s trust in democratic processes and institutions.

Acting autonomously and representing a critical and academic public are the essential characteristics of the civil sector. Fake NGO’s are abusing the mechanism which was developed in democratic societies and which enables citizens to influence public policies and moves of the government.

Experiences of some other authoritative regimes, such those from Russia or Hungary, show that the government can use such organisations even for physical conflicts with all of those it declares its enemies.