Olivera Kovacevic, the Supervisor and Editor of Serbia’s national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest – Pesma za Evroviziju, has been dismissed from her position, due to some of her political views, and events that happened during this year’s edition of the Contest.

Since the concrete canopy at the railway station in Novi Sad collapsed last year, killing 14 people and injuring several others, protests emerged all over the country, ran primarily by students. Olivera Kovacevic was one of the few employees within RTS (which is considered to be very closely connected to the President and the ruling political party) who took a public stand in favor of the students and the protests.

Predrag Azdejkovic, one of the members of the Board of Directors, submitted an official complaint against Kovacevic due to the fact that various contestants sent “political messages” during their performances, which related to the protests in the country. The final decision on Olivera’s removal was done by the General Director of RTS –

Olivera made the following statement:

I was removed from the position of Supervisor and Editor of Pesma za Evroviziju by the decision of the general director of RTS, because, as it was presented to me, I disobeyed his order to prevent the participants of the competition from expressing their views and support for student protests at the festival. More specifically, wearing badges, showing a red fist, raising an index in a live program, as well as performing the song “Za milion godina”, was interpreted as a political message. It is true that as an Editor I did not want to censor anyone at the festival and that PzE25 showed that RTS is open to all its citizens and that artists have the right to their opinion without any rude and offensive behavior.

Azdejkovic took to X after the news broke, and already showed his support towards having Jelena Karleusa representing Serbia next year in Austria. Karleusa is a decades-long music icon in the country, but heavily criticized in the recent years due to her close support to the current President of the country and his political party, as well as for her stances against the students in the country and the protests.

Šansa da sledeće godine @karlinbich predstavlja Srbiju na Evroviziji se uvećala za hiljadu puta!https://t.co/7QU51e2edA

— dr Predrag Azdejković 🏳️‍🌈🇷🇸 (@azdejkovic1) July 31, 2025

Whether RTS will organize Pesma za Evroviziju 26 and have the Serbian act once again chosen through this Festival, run by a different Supervisor, or whether they will go back to selecting their entry internally, like it was the case in 2016 and 2017 remains to be seen.