New Democratic Party of Serbia

Not to be confused with the Democratic Party (Serbia).

The New Democratic Party of Serbia (Serbian: Нова Демократска странка Србије, romanized: Nova Demokratska stranka Srbije, pronounced [nova demǒkratskaː strânka sr̂bije], abbr. NDSS), known as the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) until 2022, is a national-conservative political party in Serbia. Miloš Jovanović serves as the current president of NDSS.

New Democratic Party of Serbia Нова Демократска странка Србије
Abbreviation	NDSS
President	Miloš Jovanović
Vice-Presidents	Dejan Šulkić Zoran Sandić Predrag Marsenić Siniša Atlagić Uroš Janković
Founder	Vojislav Koštunica
Founded	26 July 1992 (1992-07-26)
Split from	Democratic Party
Headquarters	Braće Jugovića 2a, Belgrade
Ideology	National conservatism
Political position	Right-wing
Parliamentary group	National Democratic Alternative
Colours	Blue
National Assembly	7 / 250
Assembly of Vojvodina	4 / 120
City Assembly of Belgrade	4 / 110
Website
novidss.rs
Politics of Serbia Political parties Elections

DSS was formed as a conservative split from the Democratic Party (DS) and has played a key role in the opposition during the 1990s. It was a part of the "Together" coalition and was later a founding member of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS). Its first leader, Vojislav Koštunica, was elected president of Yugoslavia in 2000, a role which he served until 2003. DSS left the DOS government in 2001 and served in the opposition until the 2003 parliamentary election, after which it managed to form a government with other right-wing parties. Koštunica was appointed prime minister, and after 2008, it went to the opposition again after being unable to form a government. It saw its decline in the 2010s and failed to pass the threshold in the 2014 parliamentary election, leading to Koštunica resigning from the position as party leader. He was replaced by Sanda Rašković Ivić, and in 2016, DSS managed to enter the National Assembly again, this time in a coalition with Dveri. Rašković Ivić was ousted after the parliamentary election and was replaced by Miloš Jovanović as president of the party.

A former member of the European People's Party, it maintained a centre-right and moderate conservative image until the early 2010s, when the party shifted to a more right-wing and eurosceptic position. It leads the National Democratic Alternative (NADA) coalition, which took part in the 2022 general election.

History

1992–2000

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) was founded in 1992 by a breakaway nationalist faction of the Democratic Party (DS), which advocated involvement in the Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS).^[1]

Founding members of the party were Vojislav Koštunica, Vladeta Janković, Đurđe Ninković, Draško Petrović, Mirko Petrović and Vladan Batić. The founding assembly was held on 26 July 1992 and elected Vojislav Koštunica as its first president. The first party assembly was held on 5 December 1992 and adopted the party's first manifesto.^{[citation needed]}

Vojislav Koštunica, founder and the first president of the party

The DSS first competed in the December 1992 parliamentary elections. As part of DEPOS, the DSS received 18 seats in the National Assembly of Serbia - which grew to 20 after non-party-aligned members of DEPOS decided to leave the Parliament. Soon, similar differences of opinion over ways in which to fight the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and the DSS's belief in Serbian nationalism led to a division in DEPOS too. The DSS left the coalition in mid-1993.^[1]

Next parliamentary elections in Serbia were called prematurely for 19 December 1993. This time DSS ran independently and received seven seats. This was a period of the party's political stagnation as most nationalist votes went to the Serbian Radical Party. It did not have enough seats to significantly influence matters in Serbia and was left without representation in the Federal Assembly.

In 1996, opposition Zajedno (Together) coalition was created. DSS entered the 1996 federal parliamentary elections as part of the coalition and won four seats in the Federal Assembly.^[1]

2000–2008

The DSS was a founding member of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) whose presidential candidate and leader of the DSS, Vojislav Koštunica defeated Slobodan Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslav presidential election held on 24 September 2000 winning 50.24% of the vote.^[1]

In the December 2000 Serbian parliamentary election, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia won 64.7% of the popular vote, securing 176 seats in the National Assembly. The DSS was allocated 45 seats. In the ensuing Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition government, DSS had very little influence with just two cabinet-level ministerial posts, that of Deputy Prime Minister (held by Aleksandar Pravdić) and Minister of Health (held by Obren Joksimović) as well as very few second tier posts of Deputy Minister. The DSS was unhappy with the direction of the DOS Government policy and split from the coalition in late 2001.^[2]

In the 2003 parliamentary election, the DSS won 17.7% of the popular vote, translating into 53 seats in the parliament. Of these 53 seats, three went to the People's Democratic Party (NDS), one to the Serbian Liberal Party and one to the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS).

In 2004 NDS left the coalition with DSS, leaving it with 50 seats in the National Assembly. However, in 2005 both the NDS and the SDS merged into the DSS, bringing its size to 52 seats in the National Assembly.

The DSS won 47 seats in coalition with New Serbia in the 2007 parliamentary election, receiving 667,615 votes or 16.55% of the total popular vote. DSS itself received 33 seats in the parliament, and formed a group together with New Serbia, the Serbian Democratic Renewal Movement and United Serbia.

The leader of the DSS since its foundation, Vojislav Koštunica, was the Prime Minister of Serbia between March 2004 and July 2008 heading up two coalition governments. The first coalition government between March 2004 and July 2007 in coalition with Serbian Renewal Movement and G17 Plus. The second coalition government between July 2007 and July 2008 in coalition with the Democratic Party and G17 Plus.

2008–2014

In the early 2008 parliamentary election held in May 2008 following the self-proclaimed declaration of independence by the Serbian province of Kosovo, the DSS won 30 seats in the National Assembly in coalition with New Serbia. It won 480,987 votes representing 11.62% of the electorate. In coalition with New Serbia 2008–10, it formed the second largest opposition block in the Serbian parliament.

Since 2008 the DSS has positioned itself as a staunch defender of the premise that Kosovo should remain within Serbia (in some shape or form) and that further negotiations must take place to determine a workable political outcome regarding Kosovo and Serbia. Because of this approach, the DSS is against Serbia joining the EU if in return it is bound to acknowledge the legitimacy of the self-proclaimed independent Kosovo.

The party has become increasingly nationalist and eurosceptic since the independence of Kosovo. In 2012, Vojislav Koštunica stated that the EU is destroying Serbia and that Serbia should abstain on EU membership. The party subsequently left the European People's Party in February 2012.^[3]

The party competed independently in the 2012 parliamentary elections in May 2012 and received around 7% of the popular vote (273,532 votes) translating into 21 Members of Parliament.

2014–present

In 2014, founder and first president of DSS Vojislav Koštunica left the party over its abandonment of the idea of political neutrality. Subsequently, Slobodan Samardžić, Dragan Jočić, Vladeta Janković and Dejan Mihajlov also announced their departure in response to differences of opinion over the course of DSS.

On 26 January 2021, DSS and the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia (POKS) signed an agreement on joint action and agreed on a joint political-program platform called the National-Democratic Alternative.^[4] In early May, the National-Democratic Alternative was transformed into a pre-electoral coalition.^[5] On 24 May, the 14th party assembly was held in which Jovanović was re-elected as the president of the party, while Dejan Šulkić, Zoran Sandić, and Predrag Marsenić were elected as vice-presidents.^[6] DSS changed its name to New Democratic Party of Serbia following the 15th assembly on 29 May 2022.^[7]

Political positions

Initially aligned on the centre-right on the political spectrum,^[8][9] it has shifted to the right-wing in the early 2010s.^{[10][11][12][13]} A national-conservative party,^[14][15][16] it is strongly opposed to the accession of Serbia to the European Union.^[17][18] It has been also described as conservative,^[19][20] nationalist,^[21][22] populist,^[23][24] and Christian democratic.^[25] It was historically supportive of Western integration and European Union, and was a member of the European People's Party until 2012.^[26][27]

Together with the People's Party, Serbian Party Oathkeepers, and Dveri, it signed a joint declaration for the "reintegration of Kosovo into the constitutional and legal order of Serbia" in October 2022.^[28]

In the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, DSS was associated with the European People's Party until 2012, after which it became a member of the European Democrat Group until 2014.^[29]

List of presidents of the Democratic Party of Serbia

#	President		Born–died	Term start	Term end
1	Vojislav Koštunica		1944–	26 July 1992	19 March 2014
2	Sanda Rašković Ivić		1956–	12 October 2014	2 August 2016
3	Miloš Jovanović		1976–	21 December 2016	Incumbent

Acting leaders

Ref:^[30]

Name			Born–died	Term start	Term end
	Aleksandar Popović		1971–	19 March 2014	12 October 2014
	Dragan Maršićanin		1950–	2 August 2016	21 December 2016

Electoral performance

Parliamentary elections

National Assembly of Serbia

Year	Leader	Popular vote	% of popular vote	#	# of seats	Seat change	Coalition	Status
1992	Vojislav Koštunica	797,831	17.98%	3rd	18 / 250	18	DEPOS	Opposition
1993		218,056	5.29%	5th	7 / 250	11	–	Opposition
1997		Election boycott			0 / 250	7	–	Extra-parliamentary
2000		2,404,758	65.69%	1st	45 / 250	45	DOS	Government 2000–01
							–	Opposition 2001–04
2003		678,031	17.96%	2nd	53 / 250	8	DSS–SLS	Government
2007		667,615	16.83%	3rd	33 / 250	20	DSS–NS–JS–SDPO	Government
2008		480,987	11.87%	3rd	21 / 250	12	DSS–NS	Opposition
2012		273,532	7.32%	4th	21 / 250	0	–	Opposition
2014		152,436	4.38%	5th	0 / 250	21	–	Extra-parliamentary
2016	Sanda Rašković Ivić	190,530	5.19%	6th	6 / 250	6	DSS–Dveri	Opposition
2020	Miloš Jovanović	72,085	2.32%	6th	0 / 250	6	Metla 2020	Extra-parliamentary
2022		204,444	5.54%	4th	7 / 250	7	NADA	Opposition
2023		191,431	5.16%	4th	7 / 250	0	NADA	Opposition

Presidential elections

President of Serbia

Year	Candidate	1st round popular vote		% of popular vote	2nd round popular vote		% of popular vote	Notes
1992	Milan Panić	2nd	1,516,693	34.65%	—	—	—	Supported Panić, an independent candidate
Sep 1997	Election boycott							Election annulled due to low turnout
Dec 1997	Election boycott
Sep–Oct 2002	Vojislav Koštunica	1st	1,123,420	31.56%	1st	1,991,947	68.38%	Election annulled due to low turnout
Dec 2002		1st	1,699,098	59.28%	—	—	—	Election annulled due to low turnout
2003	Election boycott							Election annulled due to low turnout
2004	Dragan Maršićanin	4th	414,971	13.47%	—	—	—
2008	Velimir Ilić	3rd	305,828	7.57%	—	—	—	Supported Ilić
2012	Vojislav Koštunica	4th	290,861	7.79%	—	—	—
2017	Aleksandar Popović	10th	38,167	1.06%	—	—	—
2022	Miloš Jovanović	3rd	226,137	6.10%	—	—	—

Positions held

Major positions held by Democratic Party of Serbia members:

President of FR Yugoslavia	Years
Vojislav Koštunica	2000–2003
Prime Minister of Serbia	Years
Vojislav Koštunica	2004–2008
President of the Assembly of Serbia and Montenegro	Years
Zoran Šami	2004–2006
President of the National Assembly of Serbia	Years
Dragan Maršićanin	2001 2004

Notable members

• Vojislav Koštunica
• Aleksandar Popović
• Slobodan Samardžić
• Aleksandar Pravdić
• Dragan Jočić
• Miloš Aligrudić
• Radomir Naumov
• Dragan Maršićanin
• Predrag Bubalo
• Vladeta Janković
• Draško Petrović
• Mirko Petrović
• Đurđe Ninković
• Milan Parivodić
• Vladan Batić
• Bora Đorđević
• Dušan Prelević
• Nenad Popović

See also

• Conservatism portal

• Politics of Serbia
• List of political parties in Serbia

References

1. "Izbori 2012 - Stranke" (in Serbian). B92. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
2. "Serbia vote: Parties and players". BBC News. 24 December 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
3. "DSS napustio Evropsku narodnu partiju" (in Serbian). Radio-televizija Srbije. 25 February 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
4. "DSS i POKS potpisali Sporazum o zajedničkom delovanju". www.danas.rs (in Serbian). Danas. 26 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
5. "DSS i POKS potpisali koalicioni sporazum". rs.n1info.com (in Serbian). N1. 6 May 2021.
6. "Članovi DSS izabrali rukovodstvo stranke, Jovanović ostaje predsednik". rs.n1info.com (in Serbian). N1. 24 May 2021.
7. Radovanović, Vojin (27 May 2022). "DSS (ponovo) postaje "Novi", odluka možda nesvrishodna". Danas (in Serbian). Retrieved 29 May 2022.
8. Nezi, Spyridoula; Sotiropoulos, Dimitri; Toka, Panayiota (August 2009). "Explaining the Attitudes of Parliamentarians towards European Integration in Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia: Party Affiliation, 'Left-Right' Self-placement or Country Origin?". Europe-Asia Studies. Glasgow: Routledge. p. 1006. ISSN 0966-8136.
9. Ilonszki, Gabriella (2013). Perceptions of the European Union in New Member States : a Comparative Perspective. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-317-96578-7. OCLC 863822466.
10. Chun, Kwang-Ho (2011). Kosovo: A New European Nation-State?. International Area Studies Review. p. 91.
11. Ramet, Sabrina (2010). Serbia since July 2008: at the Doorstep of the EU. p. 20.
12. Three freedoms under the magnifying glass: Review of violations of freedom of association, assembly and expression in Serbia from March to July 2019. Three Freedoms Platform. 2019. p. 4.
13. Stojarová, Věra; Emerson, Peter, eds. (30 October 2009). "Political parties in Serbia" (PDF). Party politics in the Western Balkans. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415550994. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
14. Constitutional politics in Central and Eastern Europe : from post-socialist transition to the reform of political systems. Anna Fruhstorfer, Michael Hein. Wiesbaden. 2016. p. 278. ISBN 978-3-658-13762-5. OCLC 960701696.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
15. Stojic, Marko (2018). Party responses to the EU in the western Balkans : transformation, opposition or defiance?. Cham, Switzerland. p. 233. ISBN 978-3-319-59563-4. OCLC 1003200383.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
16. Orlović, Slaviša; Antonić, Slobodan; Vukomanović, Dijana; Stojiljković, Zoran; Vujačić, Ilija; Đurković, Miša; Mihailović, Srećko; Gligorov, Vladimir; Komšić, Jovan; Pajvančić, Marijana; Pantić, Dragomir (2007). Ideologija i političke stranke u Srbiji [Ideology and Political Parties in Serbia] (PDF) (in Serbian). Belgrade: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Faculty of Political Sciences, Institute for Humanities. ISBN 978-86-83767-23-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2001.
17. Čavoški, Aleksandra (December 2015). Idealism or realism in the process of EU enlargement: The case of Serbia. Birmingham: East European Quarterly. p. 279. ISSN 0012-8449.
18. Antonić, Slobodan (2012). "Eurosceptism in Serbia" (PDF). Serbian Political Thought. 5 (1). Institute of Political Studies in Belgrade: 69. doi:10.22182/spt.512012.4.
19. Drezgić, Rada (2010). "Religion, Politics and Gender in the Context of Nation-State Formation: the case of Serbia". Third World Quarterly. 31 (6). Belgrade: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.: 955–970. doi:10.1080/01436597.2010.502728. PMID 20857571. S2CID 33001865.
20. Serbia Country Report. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Transformation Index. 2010. p. 2.
21. Gligorov, Vladimir (February 2007). Serbia: stability at risk. p. 2.
22. Woehrel, Steven (May 2013). Serbia: Current Issues and U.S. Policy. Washington D.C.: Congressional Research Service. p. 1.
23. The Western Balkan candidates for NATO membership and partnership : a report. David Greenwood, Centre for European Security Studies. Groningen: Centre for European Security Studies. 2005. ISBN 90-76301-20-4. OCLC 71641941.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
24. Vykoupilová, Hana; Stojarová, Věra (2007). "Populism in the Balkans: The Case of Serbia". Muni Journals (2–3): 95–112.
25. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2020). "Serbia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
26. "Koštunica se nadao da će SR Jugoslavija ući u EU". danasrs (in Serbian). Danas. 22 November 2020.
27. "DSS napustio Evropsku narodnu partiju". Radio Television of Serbia (in Serbian). 25 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
28. "Pokret za odbranu KiM i pet partija usvojili Deklaraciju za reintegraciju KiM". Tanjug (in Serbian). 4 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
29. "Mr Miloš Aligrudić (Serbia, EDG)". Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
30. "Serbian ministries, etc". rulers.org. B. Schemmel. Retrieved 13 August 2016.

External links

• Democratic Party of Serbia. Official website.
• Democratic Party of Serbia Youth
• Democratic Party of Serbia Belgrade
• Democratic Party of Serbia Economic Council