Why corruption kills: the case of the Balkans

From a Western perspective, corruption is often associated with high-level government officials and businesspeople making favorable deals or facilitating tax cuts, issues that occur over the heads of the lower and middle classes without having a considerable effect on their livelihoods. This is because, as much as corruption might exist at a high corporate level, it is guaranteed in Western countries that it will not trickle down and affect domains on which the living standards of the general population depend: infrastructure, construction standards, safety and health regulations, academia, consumers’ rights, or the social safety net.

However, in young and flawed democracies, such as the post-communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, these are not guarantees, and the lack of enforcement or state complicity allows corruption to be tolerated and to flourish in all social strata. While some might consider such forms of “petty corruption” (bribing policemen/inspection authorities to avoid a fine, for example) as largely innocent occurrences that do not affect the state’s development as long as high-level corruption is tackled properly, this cannot be further from the truth. As we have witnessed many times in the Balkans, especially over the past year, these forms of regular, everyday, and normalized corruption destroy lives, shatter people’s belief in the prospects of a functioning society, and ultimately lead to death.

In this article, I aim to draw lines between three tragedies from Balkan countries that were largely caused by state and business corruption, find common causes, diagnose the socio-economic illnesses that stood behind them, and ultimately ponder whether a cure does exist. The recent cases that drew me to write this article are the March 2025 nightclub fire in Kocani, North Macedonia, and the November 2024 canopy collapse of the Novi Sad Train Station in Serbia. The third case I will use, which deeply marked my adolescence and whose resemblance to the Kocani incident is frightening, is the 2015 Colectiv nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania.

The Kocani nightclub fire

This incident led to the deaths of 59 people initially and the hospitalization of 155 more, many of whom were in critical condition. The fire broke out during a hip-hop concert because of pyrotechnic equipment being used improperly as part of the show, leading to the ceiling quickly bursting into flames. The building did not have a hydrant or a hydrant network, did not have enough fire extinguishers, and there was only one available exit door, while the other one was locked and put in the back of the club, making the building a literal death trap. Moreover, instead of being lined with fireproof material, the walls and ceiling of the building were filled with flammable plasterboard and foam, which accelerated the full spread of the fire in a matter of minutes.

Evidently, all of these inadequacies in the construction and operation of the club were linked to bribery and corruption. The club had a maximum capacity of 250 people while actually hosting over 1500 during the concert (including many minors); it had no license that would allow pyrotechnic shows in the building’s premises and operated with a license that was illegally issued by the Economy Ministry, as per the North Macedonian Prime Minister’s declarations. Thus far, around 20 people have been arrested, including the club’s managers, government officials, and officials from the Economy Ministry.¹

The tragedy resulted in street protests throughout the country, including in the capital, Skopje, which resulted in the destruction of a pub belonging to the same owner of the nightclub by the protesters. This tragic incident was not isolated in North Macedonia, with similar fires at hospitals or gas stations taking place and leading to double-digit causalities only in the past seven years. Such events showcase the cartel-like structure that defines the relationship between corrupt businessmen and a complacent government that turns a blind eye to safety regulations for the right price.

Since it is still a very early incident and the judicial process is just getting underway, looking at other cases in the Balkans, is it possible for actual positive shifts to occur after a tragic event like this one? As the two other case studies below will show, while short-to-medium-term political change might occur (resignations from top political and infrastructure-related positions), the systemic issues and mentalities that stand at the basis of such incidents will most likely not happen. The mindset I am referring to can be encapsulated as the urge to chase short-term profit instead of the longer-term construction of a functioning societal structure, one based on rules rather than favors, one in which the prospects of a rule-based, modern society are evident.

One that stands in contrast to this constant struggle to remain on top of the food chain in a dog-eat-dog world. The latter outlook stems from a firm belief, carved by frustration, that significant anti-corruption acts cannot happen in the Balkans; thus, it is preferable to “play the game” that the corrupt authorities lay out for you and profit from it instead of fighting for the “right cause” and “ruining” your life because of it. It is a comfort that stems from disbelief in oneself and in the power of civic change.

The Novi Sad railway station collapse

In November 2024, the newly renovated concrete canopy of the Novi Sad railway station collapsed ², leading to the death of 15 people. The renovation, financed through the China-backed Belt and Road Initiative and facilitated by Chinese companies, was carried out in a secretive manner and with “suspicions of corruption, cost inflation, and political favoritism.” As in the North Macedonian case, the Novi Sad tragedy was fueled by a kleptocratic system, with corrupted officials finding shortcuts to give construction contracts to firms that are well-connected to state authorities.

Moreover, according to some experts, the event should have been more than preventable, but the improper oversight and the cost cuts associated with these types of projects in Serbia led to 15 deaths. Thus far, the former transport minister, as well as officials from Serbian Railways and construction workers who handled the project, have been charged with endangering public safety. Politically, after the initial resignation of the ministers of construction and of internal and foreign trade, Serbia’s government as a whole resigned on March 19th, which questions whether President Aleksandar Vucic will manage to survive this political storm.³

The spark that this incident lit was totally unexpected. Building on previous student protests in the past few years against Aleksandar Vucic’s leadership and its corruption, collusion with criminals, or suspicious business deals, Serbian civil society mobilized at a massive scale following the Novi Sad tragedy. Almost-daily protests started in November and have amplified significantly in March. The protesters’ main demands are accountability for the perpetrators, the disclosure of information regarding the incident, and respect of the constitution in seeking justice. This message emerged in response to officials attempting to hide or even erase evidence from the incident. ⁴

More than 325,000 people resonated with the message that was initially sent by student unions and joined Serbian youth in the streets against government corruption. Whether these unprecedented movements will lead to significant governmental shifts remains to be seen, since the events are ongoing. However, it is evidently clear that Vucic’s inner circle is determined to remain in power. This is revealed by claims of the illegal use of a sonic weapon against the protesters, as well as by the harsh beating and even assassination attempts that the Serbian opposition has been facing.⁵

Compared to the North Macedonian incident, this case illustrates the dangers of transnational corruption and of large-scale infrastructural projects with partners that do not respect EU-level safety regulations but who complete a project faster and for lower sums, as is often the case with Chinese endeavors. The decay of government accountability and of democratic standards leads to further alliances with authoritarian states and to a self-feeding corrupt system that encourages improvisation and cutting corners, often leading to death. While the massive protests bring hope at the moment, it will prove hard to counter the crony capitalist system that has captured the Serbian state, as it is deeply entrenched within the government and the business sector and reinforced by international strategic alliances.

While the aforementioned two incidents in North Macedonia and Serbia are ongoing, the next one I will mention happened in 2015, and thus, most of the conclusions regarding the case can be drawn. It can offer an outlook about what could happen after the Kocani and Novi Sad tragedies in terms of actual political and regulatory reform.

The Colectiv nightclub fire

In an almost identical fashion to the Kocani nightclub fire, the Colectiv Nightclub burst into flames on October 30th, 2015, in Bucharest, Romania, during a rock concert. Also, due to a pyrotechnics show, the acoustic foam on the ceiling caught on fire, killing 27 people that same night and 65 in total over the following months. Many of the spectators died, as in Kocani, in a stampede created at the only available exit, which was only halfway open. The loosely enforced safety regulations and administrative inaccuracies, such as the club receiving a functioning approval from the district town hall despite the lack of an operating permit from the Fire Department, were, unfortunately, just the tip of the iceberg, as each of the institutional responses and existing infrastructure dedicated to such crises failed miserably, one by one.⁶

The initial response of the emergency services, ambulance and fire department, was “uncoordinated and filled with improvisations”, preventing a timely response at the scene. Later, after patients had been taken to the hospital, the health minister at that time declared that Romania had all the necessary conditions and applied all Western standards to assure the appropriate treatment of the burn victims. That could not have been further from the truth.

37 people succumbed to their wounds in the following months, and, as it was revealed by investigative journalists through whistleblowers, many patients died because of bacterial infections they caught from Romanian hospitals ⁷. In that sense, a video surfaced on the internet that showed a Colectiv victim in the hospital with maggots crawling on their wounds. In an even more criminal manner, instead of accepting the transfer of patients to Western European hospitals, the political leadership at that time decided to not allow many of the wounded to be transferred and hid for as long as possible any proof of the hospital sanitary conditions, probably to attempt to save their political face at home and abroad.

This diabolical ignorance and self-centeredness led to the deaths of tens of citizens, some of whom had treatable wounds. In fact, at the moment of the tragedy and, unfortunately, to this day, there are no existing units in all of Romania for major burn patients, and only 24 functional units for medium-scale burn patients.

Eventually, protests with tens of thousands of participants from all over the country followed the tragedy and led to the resignation of the sectoral mayor that approved the club’s functioning and later to that of the government, resulting in the formation of a technocratic one-year government. The subsequent legal process ⁸ was slow and flawed, with the first definitive convictions coming only in May 2022: the district mayor received a four-year sentence (of which he only served one), while the sentences for the club owners, the pyrotechnician, and the firefighters from the emergency situation inspectorate received sentences ranging from six to eleven years.

What is also worrisome and what should also be of concern in other Balkan civil societies is that people tend to have a short-term memory regarding these incidents. While some improvements have been made regarding safety regulations for such event buildings, the political figures who were leading the country at that point have been revitalized. As such, the district mayor, Cristian Popescu Piedone, ran for the Bucharest General Town Hall in 2024 and got third place. Furthermore, in an even sicker twist of irony, he was recently named the president of the National Authority for Consumer Protection and became viral on TikTok ⁹ with videos in which he closes down different restaurants throughout the country. In this manner, he is rehashing his image (especially among teenagers, who have less of a recollection of Colectiv) from a corrupt mayor to a man of the people and an enforcer of laws and regulations.

Moreover, the then-prime minister, Victor Ponta, a longtime member of the social democratic party and a politician known for his push towards tightening relations with China, Serbia, or Turkey ¹⁰, is now a rebranded MAGA politician who recently entered the presidential race and is polling fourth. From these two cases, it can be concluded that without an active civil society that names and shames the politicians responsible for such tragedies and without a believable and capable political opposition movement, this type of political figure will keep returning to key positions of power and will continue practicing their crony capitalism.

It is hard for me to write about the topic of Colectiv even almost ten years after the incident. As a young teenager living in Bucharest and an avid rock concert goer, the footage from Colectiv and from the hospital beds gave me nightmares for weeks, made me ponder about fate and the fragility of life, but also represented a political awakening for me, since I have participated in every anti-corruption protest ever since.

It made me understand that a bribe is more than just a bribe; a nepotistic practice in hiring government officials, a lax enforcement of the law, or a corrupted distribution of state funds are more than part and parcel of a dysfunctional democracy; they are criminal acts. While these acts might not represent a proverbial throat cut or the equivalent of a mass murder of your own citizens, I think that they could be compared to the government giving a pistol to the population and forcing it to play Russian Roulette in the hopes that maybe the trigger will not be pulled while they are still in power.

It is a form of negligence and cronyism that destroys the future of thousands of individuals and their families, while also clarifying for a significant stratum of the population that the said country is no place to live in anymore, resulting in a total loss of faith in any form of institutional reform. Then it is not surprising that Romania has one of the highest emigration growth rates in the world, being in second place in the world during the same time as the Colectiv incident, only behind war-torn Syria, and that it is facing a massive youth brain drain.

That being said, I hope wholeheartedly that what happened in Serbia and North Macedonia leads to actual reform in core public domains and within the political ruling class, although looking at the trend that haunts most Balkan countries, that still seems unlikely. There have been many recent cases besides the three above that can be evoked. For example, the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey ¹¹ were even more deadly due to the poor construction standards that were approved by government authorities, which persist to this day, or the February 2023 train crash in Greece, where human negligence and the poor quality of rail warning systems led to an accident that killed 57 people.

Conclusion

Throughout the text, I have pointed out some of the necessary factors to ensure that such tragedies are not in vain: immense social pressure on the political class, the formation of new, democratic, young, determined, and Western-oriented parties, and the conservation and promotion of a strong judiciary and of capable investigative journalists. These are essential for a less corrupt future for the Balkan people. However, as things stand, corruption, be it petty or high-level, will continue to take the lives of innocent people and make citizens lose hope for any change. In their unconsciousness about their actions, corrupted politicians and businesspeople alike do not realize that they are breaking the actual fabric of democracy, and even if they did, most would probably not care.

In the desperation and suffering caused by these clientelist networks within what could be called a Balkan imitation and improvisation of democracy, the average citizen will look for solutions elsewhere, start fantasizing about a strongman who can tackle corrupt politicians with an iron fist and maintain a dictatorial, but stable and rules-based, regime. That way, the path to authoritarianism is set for the Balkan region, and the whole post-communist process can be labeled as a failure.

The fight against corruption in all its forms is not only about the lives we live, the safety of the bodies we inhabit, the livelihoods we could shape, and the equal opportunities that we and our future generations are deprived of. Corruption does not only kill people, but it also kills the soul of a democratic nation and ruins the fate of generations to come, who will have to start their fight for liberty from square one. The continued death of innocent people by government negligence or complicity will, in time, spell the death of democracy as a whole, which is why it is important for the good-willed people of the Balkans, wherever they might be, to stand their ground and fight for a just society. The alternative is dire.