In Serbia itself, the Directorate regularly funnels money to local organisations that claim to support the Serb diaspora in the region.
The Izrazajnost association, for example, received a total of 23,800 euros in 2023-2024 for two projects promoting the use of Cyrillic.
Izrazajnost is led by actor Milan Bosiljcic, who in 2023 was among a host of public figures who put their signatures to a statement of support for the SNS.
In 2024, the Directorate awarded 9,400 euros to an association co-founded by Bosiljcic’s daughter, Sara, called Jeremija, for the purposes of a language camp. The association’s first project, which was not funded by the Directorate, was conducted in cooperation with Solidarité Kosovo, an organisation founded by SNS member Arnaud Gouillon, who was head of the Directorate at the time.
Since 2023, the Belgrade Centre for Education and Youth Development, CEROB, has received almost 34,000 euros from the Directorate for diaspora youth camps.
In late 2023, the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia, CINS, reported that SNS activists tasked with canvassing voters for their support were being paid in cash at CEROB’s Belgrade office.
A year later, CEROB representative Ognjen Kocevic was appointed by the Serbian government to the Managing Board of the Institute for the Evaluation of Education Quality.
The Directorate also awarded two grants totalling 13,600 euros to the Association of Students of Republika Srpska in Serbia.
During local elections in 2024 in Serbia’s second city of Novi Sad, members of the association were caught on camera working in an SNS call centre at the Novi Sad Fairgrounds, where party operatives used voter records to track turnout.
Last year, the Directorate gave 8,500 euros to the Association of War Veterans of Serb Lands 1990–1999, for summer youth camps. The association’s leader, Zeljko Vukelic, previously sparked public outrage for sending children aged 11 to 15 to military training camps in Russia in 2017, where children were taught to handle guns and hand grenades.
None of the associations mentioned above responded to requests for comment.
Political scientist Dusko Radosavljevic said the direction of funding reflects the SNS roots in the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, which Vucic was a key part of through the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, right up until 2008 when he broke away and formed the SNS.
“It must not be overlooked that this regime has, from its inception, carried a distinct ideological marker – a far-right stance,” Radosavljevic said.
“This is a regime rooted in the Serbian Radical Party, one of the most abhorrent political creations in Serbia. It exerts a malignant influence fueled by disputes with neighbours, nationalism, and support for war crimes.”
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