Ministry of Energy in the Red Zone of Incompetence and Robbery

While the Government of Serbia, acting under the directives of Aleksandar Vučić, is making a series of inexplicable and harmful decisions regarding NIS—rather than following the successful examples of Germany and Italy—the regime is persistently undermining the country’s energy future. Within such a policy, the Minister of Energy, Dubravka Đedović Handanović, has already seriously endangered the security of citizens by lowering the red-zone threshold from 1,600 kWh to 1,200 kWh.

This decision was not made to preserve energy stability, but to extract more money—once again at the expense of citizens. The regime’s “creativity” always ends with citizens paying the price. The key question that must be asked is: what exactly is being financed by this measure—the collapse of EPS, party patronage networks, or the losses caused by political management?

By lowering the red-zone threshold, the minister has introduced a hidden price increase alongside the overt one. Hundreds of thousands of households are now being pushed into the most expensive tariff without any increase in consumption. This disproportionately affects families who heat with electricity and those who already live in energy poverty. This is not energy policy—this is an attempt to patch the holes in the system, and to cover the incompetence and mismanagement of EPS through citizens’ electricity bills.

The direct consequence of this measure—and perhaps its intention—is the further deepening of the gap between the wealthy and those who barely make ends meet, as well as the deterioration of the health and social conditions of tens of thousands of households.

That is why the Civic Movement Solidarity directly addresses Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović:

Stop transferring the financial failures and political calculations of the government onto the backs of citizens. Withdraw the decision to lower the red-zone threshold. Protect the people—not party interests.

The citizens of Serbia are not, and must not become, an ATM for covering other people’s mistakes and incompetence. GP Solidarity advocates for an energy policy that serves the public interest, not one that uses poverty as an instrument of submission.