my-server
← Wiki

Conservatism in Serbia

This article gives an overview of conservatism in Serbia (). It is limited to conservative parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it is not necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a conservative party.

Introduction

Conservatism has been a major force in Serbia since the 19th century.

Timeline

From Constitutionalists to Progressives

People's Radical Party

The People's Radical Party (Narodna radikalna stranka) was founded in 1881 as a radical party but from 1919 it evolved into a conservative direction

  • 1935: A wing seceded as the ⇒ Yugoslav Radical Union
  • 1945: The party is banned

Yugoslav Radical Union

  • 1935: A wing seceded from the ⇒ People's Radical Party and constituted the Yugoslav Radical Union (Jugoslovenska radikalna zajednica)
  • 1941: The party ceased to exist

Yugoslav National Movement

Serbian Renewal Movement

Democratic Party of Serbia

New Serbia

Movement for Democratic Serbia

People’s Democratic Party

  • 2001: A faction seceded from the Movement for Democratic Serbia and formed the People's Democratic Party (Narodna demokratska stranka)
  • 2004: The party merged into the ⇒ Democratic Party of Serbia

G17 Plus

  • G17 Plus was founded in 1997 as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Serbia, then a federal unit within FR Yugoslavia. The organization consisting of economic experts enjoyed financial support of the United States through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
  • The organization was registered as a political party on 15 December 2002, with Miroljub Labus as its first president.
  • At its first electoral showing at the 2003 parliamentary elections, G17 Plus received 11.5% of the popular vote and 34 seats in the National Assembly.
  • In March 2004, G17+ formed a coalition government with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and New Serbia (NS).
  • In May 2006 Miroljub Labus resigned as party leader and was replaced by Mlađan Dinkić. On October 1, 2006, the party quit the governing coalition over its failure to find and extradite ICTY fugitive Ratko Mladić.
  • In the 2007 elections, the party received 6.82% of the popular vote and 19 seats in the parliament and formed the government with DS and DSS
  • In the 2008 elections, the party ran in the coalition For a European Serbia led by Democratic Party, coalition ended up winning around 38% of the popular vote (1,590,200 votes) and 102 seats in the parliament of which 24 went to G17. Party once again entered government when it was formed between DS led coalition of which G17 was member of and coalition led by SPS
  • In 2010, G17 Plus founded the United Regions of Serbia (URS), a coalition of political parties and groups emphasizing decentralization and regional development of Serbia.
  • In the 2012 elections, party ran in the United Regions of Serbia coalition and ended up winning around 5.5% of the popular vote (215,666) and 16 seats in the parliament 10 of which went to G17. Once again G17 entered the government this time it was formed with SNS led coalition and SPS led coalition
  • In April 2013 G17 Plus fully merged with URS, transforming it into a political party.
  • On 31 July 2013 the URS was ousted from the government and became opposition
  • In the 2014 elections URS won just around 3% of the popular vote (109,167 votes) and failed to enter parliament for the first time in its history
  • On 13 November 2015 the party was removed from the register of political parties and ceased to exist, which was controversial because the party had over a million euros of unpaid debt. It had already been defunct for more than a year, according to the former president Mlađan Dinkić

Dveri

  • Dveri were founded by Branimir NeÅ¡ić in 1999 as a Christian right-wing youth organisation consisting mainly of students from the University of Belgrade which regularly arranged public debates devoted to the popularisation of clerical-nationalist philosophy of Nikolaj Velimirović, a bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church who was canonized in 2003.
  • In March 2012 the movement collected 14,507 signatures to register as an electoral list for the May 2012 Serbian parliamentary election. The Dveri Movement received 4.35% of the popular vote, failing to pass the 5% minimum threshold to enter parliament.
  • Dveri again ran alone in the March 2014 Serbian parliamentary election, winning 3.58% of the vote, failing again to pass the 5% minimum threshold to enter parliament. They were characterized by many as a far-right party at this point of time
  • In November 2014 Dveri and the Democratic Party of Serbia declared that they would contest the next elections as the "Patriotic Bloc" alliance. Parliamentary elections were held on 24 April 2016, in which the "Patriotic Bloc" won 5.04% of the vote (13 seats, of which Dveri had 7). After this election, for the first time in history, they became a parliamentary party.
  • Dveri announced on 3 September 2016 that BoÅ¡ko Obradović, the president of Dveri, will be their candidate on the 2017 presidential election. On 10 March, BoÅ¡ko Obradović submitted his signatures for the candidacy to RIK. In the end, he only got 2.16% of the vote on the presidential election.
  • In 2018 they were one of the founding members of the catch-all opposition Alliance for Serbia which boycotted the 2020 parliamentary election.

People's Party

  • After his unsuccessful bid in an attempt to replace Ban Ki-Moon as UN Secretary-General in the end of 2016, Vuk Jeremić returned to Serbia, where he enjoyed relatively high approval ratings compared to other opposition politicians. He decided to run for president in 2017 presidential election, he finished fourth, with little less than 6% of the vote.
  • In the aftermath of the election though his results were quite disappointing, he announced he will form a party. He gathered support for such move mainly from conservative intellectuals who were opposing Vučić's government and were previously tied with DSS (most notably Sanda RaÅ¡ković-Ivić, a former DSS president). He formed the People's Party in October 2017. The People's Party was able to forgo the usual registration process for new parties when Miroslav Aleksić, a member of the National Assembly, allowed his People's Movement of Serbia to be re-registered and re-constituted under the new party name
  • Since its inception the People's Party has positioned itself as an opposition party to the government, led by Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Jeremić stated he is a pro-EU politician, but he opposes Serbia joining NATO

Conservative leaders

See also

References