For the ordinary Viennese, it’s just another neighborhood Balkan bakery.
But to the more than 76,000 Serbians living in the Austrian capital, the shop known as Pekarica — "little bakery" — offers a fragrant touch of home, where orders are exchanged effortlessly in their native tongue as the scent of dough wafts from the oven.
That’s not all. On one recent morning, a customer stepped to the front of the counter, ignoring the steaming trays of braided breads and glossy pretzels entirely.
“Excuse me,” he said. “I was told by my colleagues that I can register to vote here.”
“Yes, you can,” the clerk replied, unfazed by the question. “Not here exactly, but further down. Come, I’ll take you.”
She led him out the door and a few steps down the pavement to the modest storefront housing the Association of Serbs in Austria. Inside, the walls were plastered with campaign posters, slogans, and portraits of Serbia’s long-serving president, Aleksandar Vučić, and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
At a desk covered with voter lists and photocopied identity documents, two people were busy processing applicants. The association is a non-governmental organization registered under Austrian law. Legally, it has no authority to collect voter registration materials on behalf of Serbian authorities.
Yet behind these closed doors, that is exactly what it has been doing — specifically for those who support the ruling party, an investigation by the Serbian investigative outlet KRIK found. Journalists obtained three recordings made by applicants that captured the process, as well as WhatsApp messages and flyers shared by the association with voters.
The parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday in Serbia could be pivotal, with Vučić’s long-dominant party facing a significant challenge from a student-led movement fed up with corruption and state capture.
Yet Serbian elections have long been marred by irregularities and a voting landscape warped in favor of the SNS, according to international and local observers.
Following the last parliamentary poll in December 2023, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded that the vote was technically well-administered but fundamentally skewed by the president and the ruling party’s systemic advantages. The mission warned of an unlevel playing field in the form of pervasive media bias, pressure on public-sector employees to vote for the ruling party, and the routine misuse of state resources for partisan campaigning.
The association in Vienna’s 16th District reveals how those imbalances can also reach across international borders.
Under Serbian election law, overseas voter registrations must be handled exclusively by Serbia’s diplomatic missions. But multiple Serbians living in Austria say registering through the embassy or consulate is almost impossible for some: phones ring unanswered, appointments are nearly impossible to get, and applicants are routinely turned away for missing paperwork.
Jelena Živanović Valtner, a quality coordinator in the pharmaceutical industry who has lived in Vienna with her daughter since 2009, told KRIK that she tried to register through the official consular channel, but was stonewalled.
“As required, I sent the consular department a completed and hand-signed application,” she said.
She later received a blunt email from the embassy written in all caps: “YOUR APPLICATION IS INCOMPLETE.”
Živanović Valtner followed up over email and eventually filed formal appeals with both the Republic Electoral Commission and the embassy in Vienna. She says she received a phone call assuring her that her application was under review, but that it was ultimately rejected again, without any explanation.
Now, she can only vote if she travels back to Serbia on election day.
“If my job allows me to travel to Serbia to vote, I’ll go,” she said. “If not, well, that’s that.”
Inside the association next to the bakery, meanwhile, the process appears to be entirely frictionless — for those bearing the right political stripes.
According to the undercover recordings made by applicants and obtained by KRIK, staff members processed registrations in less than five minutes. They copied identity papers, filled out forms, and took phone numbers so they could send confirmation once the registration was cleared through the Serbian embassy.
Applicants were also asked to leave the contact numbers of family and friends living in Austria who were likely to support the ruling party.
“We don’t register those road-blockers and fools,” a male voice can be heard telling an applicant in one recording, referring to the student protesters who have shut down highways and bridges during anti-government demonstrations. “We only communicate with our people who support Vučić.”
Those who registered walked out with gift bags emblazoned with the ruling party’s logo, packed with pens, lighters, and candy.
In another audio recording, a young man who walked into the association to ask about signing up was initially met with a chilly response.
“Who are you voting for?” a voice can be heard asking him suspiciously.
The person then indicated that the registration services were conditional: “If you’re voting for those others, then you’ll have to go register somewhere else! … Who else would you vote for, if not Vučić?”
After the young man told them he did not support the students, the atmosphere changed. “Those road-blockers pissing you off? Good on you!” he was told.
Outside the Law
According to Vladimir Tupanjac, an attorney who has monitored Serbian elections alongside the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), the Vienna association’s registration drive has been crossing several legal lines.
Under Serbia’s Law on the Financing of Political Activities, civic associations and foreign legal entities such as this one are prohibited from conducting election campaigns, assisting voters, or handing out party promotional materials.
“This kind of conduct is definitively unlawful,” Tupanjac told KRIK.
The operation also ignored a rule requiring voters to personally submit their voter registration applications, he said.
In one recorded phone call, an association representative assured a prospective applicant that third-party submissions were fine.
“You can notify anyone you know who supports the policies of our president; they can come with you,” the woman said. “If they trust you, they can give you their document — they don’t have to be physically present.”
Help was offered for other embassy services as well.
“Whatever else you need in terms of paperwork, or other appointments, we try to sort it out. Like I said, if you need the embassy or the consulate, well, we’re in touch with all of them.”
When KRIK reporters showed up at the association’s door to ask questions, their path was quickly blocked.
An older man stepped out front, barring the entrance. He wore a vest that read “Vučić Team Serbia” and introduced himself as Željko Vojinović, a security guard and former boxer.
“An SNS association — yes, we are,” Vojinović said in a calm, matter-of-fact tone when asked about the vest. While he kept the reporters talking outside, a man inside locked the front door.
A few minutes later, Andrej Leskovac, the person who had been the main point of contact for voters arriving to register in the undercover recordings, arrived.
When asked who had organized the voter registration drive inside the association, he acted surprised.
“I don’t know who gave you that information. Our people all register at the embassy,” he said, claiming the association focuses strictly on humanitarian work. “No votes are being collected here ... There are no registrations here, no forms. If you saw them, you didn’t see right.”
He insisted there was no official link between the association, the Serbian embassy, or the ruling party, though he made no secret of his personal admiration for Vučić.
For Tupanjac, the recordings suggest a coordinated effort designed to manipulate the diaspora vote in the ruling party’s favor.
“All these irregularities, abuses, and unlawful practices indicate that there is a systematically organized mechanism for manipulating the voter register, buying votes, and swaying the electoral will of the citizens,” he said.
The Serbian Embassy in Vienna did not answer questions about the association’s role in voter registration, referring reporters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade, which never replied.
The bakery and the SNS party did not respond to questions.
