Brnabić challenges European observers ahead of Serbia's election: does the government want to pick who watches it?

Four days before Serbia's snap parliamentary election, Ana Brnabić decided to complain - not about the opposition, but about the people who are supposed to observe the vote. The Speaker of Parliament, who is also acting President of the Republic, sent a letter of protest to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, challenging the make-up of the observer delegation.

The delegation of seven MEPs from five countries and six political groups will be in Serbia from 22 to 26 October, as part of the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission. Brnabić accuses them of political bias and claims their conduct could favour the opposition Student List - the main rival of the ruling SNS list, which carries the name of until-recently president Aleksandar Vučić.

In her sights are the head of the delegation, Austrian MEP Andreas Schieder, and Croatian MEPs Gordan Bosanac and Sunčana Glavak. She holds it against Bosanac that he expressed hope for a non-violent, democratic change of government and described the students' energy as a serious alternative to Vučić. Against Glavak - that she signed a letter to Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos asking for a suspension or freeze of Serbia's accession process to be considered.

"The choice of people who continuously express markedly negative judgements about the government in Serbia (...) clearly shows that they are coming to Serbia with conclusions already formed," Brnabić wrote. She claims Schieder repeatedly and openly violated the Code of Conduct for International Election Observers back when he observed the December 2023 election.

Schieder really is one of Vučić's sharpest critics - he has long argued that the regime is "suffocating democracy" and shows authoritarian tendencies. But the delegation is more mixed than the letter suggests: it also includes Hungarian MEP Tamás Deutsch from the "Patriots for Europe" group, a political ally of Orbán. About him, at least according to what has been published, the letter says not a word.

The Balkans know this scene by heart: those in power love observers right up until they observe too carefully. If the election is going to be clean, what is there to hide from seven MEPs? And why does the letter go to Brussels before the vote, not after it?