Bipartisan lawmakers turn up pressure on Serbian president as elections loom

A pair of bipartisan lawmakers is sending a warning to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to answer anti-corruption demands and sever ties with America’s adversaries or risk sanctions from the U.S.

Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Bill Keating (D-Mass.), members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced legislation Thursday calling for sanctions and visa bans on individuals who undermine democratic processes, peace, stability and territorial integrity in the Western Balkans.

The bipartisan broadside against Vučić stands in sharp contrast to the generally warm relationship the longtime Serbian leader has shared with President Trump.

Trump counts his 2020 effort to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo as one of the major peace efforts he’s taken on while in office — integral to his image as a “president of peace.” And Vučić, speaking to Breitbart News in May , sent out a public appeal to Trump by touting that Serbs overwhelmingly support the U.S. president.

But Wilson and Keating’s legislation serves as a message of solidarity with student-led, anti-corruption protests that have plagued the Serbian leader for two years. The protests were triggered by a railway station tragedy in November 2024 where 16 people died after a canopy collapsed.

The demonstrators argue the railway station disaster was a symptom of broader government mismanagement of construction projects and corruption.

“Under President Vucic, Serbia has deliberately drifted further from Rule of Law and nearer to enemies of freedom like War Criminal Putin, the Chinese Communist Party, and the terrorist regime in Tehran,” Wilson said in a statement to The Hill, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Despite widespread protest of corruption, the Vucic government threatens to destabilize the region and beyond. The people of Serbia deserve better,” the South Carolina Republican added.

Keating also noted that the legislation makes clear Vučić and other Serbian government officials must make progress on anti-corruption efforts and combat influence from Iran, Russia and China.

“Democracy, rule of law, and anti-corruption must remain key pillars in the U.S.-Serbia bilateral relationship,” he said.

The bill text directly calls out Vučić for using excessive force against the protesters , demands an investigation and accountability into the railway tragedy and raises concerns over Serbia’s deepening ties with Iran, Russia and China.

“The United States has an enduring interest in a stable, democratic, and sovereign Serbia that is committed to regional peace and security and firmly anchored in Euro-Atlantic institutions and free from malign external influence,” the bill text reads.

Vučić, who has held power as president and prime minister for 12 years, announced in late July he would resign within weeks, and that new parliamentary and presidential elections would take place on Oct. 18 or 25.

But there’s concern over whether those elections would be free and fair, or whether the leader would use them to reinforce his control. Freedom House rates Serbia as “partly free,” noting that over the course of 2025, Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party “has steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties, putting legal and extralegal pressure on independent media, the political opposition, and civil society organizations.”

Trump last spoke with his Serbian counterpart by phone shortly after winning the 2024 presidential election , but the two men have not appeared to meet face-to-face since 2020. Still, Vučić hosted the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., twice in Belgrade this year . And in July, the U.S. and Serbia hosted their first “strategic dialogue,” viewed as a significant elevation of Belgrade’s relationship with Washington.

Wilson and Keating address the strategic dialogue in their legislation, calling for the secretary of State to raise four key issues with Belgrade: Serbia’s relations with Russia, China and Iran; ensuring free and fair elections in Serbia; anti-corruption, public procurement, and rule of law reform in Serbia; and strengthening democratic governance, the freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly in the Balkan country.

If the secretary fails to provide the certification to Congress, the legislation demands the administration end the strategic dialogue or cut any funding related to the dialogue.