Amid political unrest in Serbia, Left MEPs are in the remote Jadar River valley in Serbia to stand against the EU-backed Rio Tinto lithium mine project. 

Left MEPs are in Serbia today to show support for the Serbian people as they protest corruption in Belgrade and environmental terrorism in Jadar, where British-Australian mining conglomerate Rio Tinto plans a destructive lithium mining project backed by the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act. 

Serbia has seen political unrest explode in recent weeks and months as protestors take to the streets against corruption within the regime of President Aleksandar Vučić. While 300,000 people demonstrated in March, the Serbian government’s control over the national media has seen little information making it into the public sphere, while activists and scientists have seen increased repression in response to their opposition to the mining operation in Jadar. 

Jonas Sjöstedt (Vänsterpartiet, Sweden)  said: “We extend our unconditional support to the Serbian people in their struggle for justice and democracy. From the streets of Belgrade to the valleys of Jadar, this movement is an extraordinary display of the will of a people fed up with corruption, authoritarianism and environmental degradation. The demand for a government in service of its citizens and for democratic control over natural resources resonates far beyond Serbia’s borders and highlights what is at stake in the fight for a just transition in all of Europe. The silence of the EU, therefore, is deafening.”

Sebastien Everding (Tierschutzpartei, Germany) said: “No government has the right to sentence thousands of species to death for the sake of earning money especially when their citizens are clearly opposing this decision. This part of Serbia has rich flora and fauna, with 140 species of plants and animals protected under Serbian law. It is our duty to stand with the people of Serbia to denounce this wrongdoing and to stop the ecocide.”

Per Clausen (Enhedslisten, Denmark) said: ”Environmental justice and democracy are inseparable. True democracy requires that resources belong to the people, managed collectively and for the common good. When the people’s democratic control over shared resources is weakened, we risk corruption and capitalist power eroding democracy. This is the very struggle the Serbian people are fighting right now.”

The MEPs are due to host a press conference tomorrow with activist group Marš Sa Drine, 10th April, at the Prostor Miljenko Dereta convention centre at 14:00 local time.