Hate graffiti present across Belgrade: No fines for those creating them

For months, graffiti have been visible on the building of a ministry, calling a media company an “evil.”

“It is so obvious that these hate graffiti simply follow some campaigns that previously appear in the state media, in the assembly and that it is a continuation, that this is simply some kind of wall newspaper as echoes and reactions, which are not spontaneous at all, they are planned,” according to psychologist Dragan Popadic.

According to N1, the graffiti addressed to N1 reporters echo the words of former Belgrade Mayor.

“The evil will eat you, my dear colleague, friend, sir, whatever you want me to call you. Evil will eat you. What kind of evil have you turned into,” said Aleksandar Sapic, now the head of the temporary body of the City of Belgrade.

The once prominent athlete (Sapic is a former water polo player) turned into a party soldier, ready to insult instead of dealing with the appearance of the city he leads. The walls of the largest sports hall in Belgrade carry an insulting message to the former athlete.

“The message is, that is, the government wants to show that we are still a xenophobic society with the impunity of such threats of graffiti and murals,” according to Marko Milosavljevic of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.

It does not surprise that a mural to Ratko Mladic, convicted of genocide, was present for months. The Youth Initiative for Human Rights counted more than 300 such murals and graffiti to help local authorities. But they did not get any answer to the recommendations on how to combat and sanction this hate speech.