New Democratic Party of Serbia

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. In early May, the National-Democratic Alternative was transformed into a pre-electoral coalition. 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. DSS changed its name to New Democratic Party of Serbia following the 15th assembly on 29 May 2022.

Political positions

Initially aligned on the centre-right on the political spectrum, it has shifted to the right-wing in the early 2010s. A national-conservative party, it is strongly opposed to the accession of Serbia to the European Union. It has been also described as conservative, nationalist, and populist. It was historically supportive of Western integration and European Union, and was a member of the European People's Party until 2012.

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.

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.

List of presidents

Acting leaders

Ref:

Timeline

ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:16 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:150 left:20 AlignBars = late

Define $today =

Colors =

id:gray1 value:gray(0.85) id:gray2 value:gray(0.95)

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1992 till:$today TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1995 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1992

BarData = bar:Koštunica bar:Popović bar:Rašković_Ivić bar:Maršićanin bar:Jovanović

PlotData = width:5 align:left fontsize:9 shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar: Koštunica from: 26/07/1992 till: 19/03/2014 color:blue text:"Vojislav Koštunica" bar: Popović from: 19/03/2014 till: 12/10/2014 color:blue text:"Aleksandar Popović (acting)" bar: Rašković_Ivić from: 12/10/2014 till: 02/08/2016 color:blue text:"Sanda Rašković Ivić" bar: Maršićanin from: 02/08/2016 till: 21/12/2016 color:blue text:"Dragan Maršićanin (acting)" bar: Jovanović from: 21/12/2016 till: $today color:blue text:"Miloš Jovanović"

Electoral performance

Parliamentary elections

ImageSize = width:1100 height:70 PlotArea = width:900 height:50 left:20 bottom:20

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/1992 Legend = columns:2 left:40 top:75 columnwidth:90

1. there is no automatic collision detection,
2. so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap

Colors= id:Government value:green legend:Government id:Opposition value:red legend:Opposition

Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar Define $dy = -1 # adjust height

PlotData=

bar:Govern. color:blue width:25 mark:(line,black) align:center

from:26/07/1992 till:25/10/2000 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Opposition from:25/10/2000 till:22/10/2001 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Government from:22/10/2001 till:18/03/2004 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Opposition from:18/03/2004 till:07/07/2008 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Government from:07/07/2008 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:Opposition

Presidential elections

Positions held

Major positions held by Democratic Party of Serbia members:

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
• Branislav Ristivojević

References

References

1. "Izbori 2012 - Stranke". B92.
2. (24 December 2003). "Serbia vote: Parties and players". BBC News.
3. (25 February 2012). "DSS napustio Evropsku narodnu partiju". Radio-televizija Srbije.
4. (26 January 2021). "DSS i POKS potpisali Sporazum o zajedničkom delovanju". Danas.
5. (6 May 2021). "DSS i POKS potpisali koalicioni sporazum". N1.
6. (24 May 2021). "Članovi DSS izabrali rukovodstvo stranke, Jovanović ostaje predsednik". N1.
7. Radovanović, Vojin. (27 May 2022). "DSS (ponovo) postaje "Novi", odluka možda nesvrishodna".
8. (August 2009). "Europe-Asia Studies". Routledge.
9. Ilonszki, Gabriella. (2013). "Perceptions of the European Union in New Member States : a Comparative Perspective.". Taylor and Francis.
10. Chun, Kwang-Ho. (2011). "Kosovo: A New European Nation-State?". International Area Studies Review.
11. Ramet, Sabrina. (2010). "Serbia since July 2008: at the Doorstep of the EU".
12. (2019). "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.
13. (30 October 2009). "Party politics in the Western Balkans". Routledge.
14. (2016). "Constitutional politics in Central and Eastern Europe : from post-socialist transition to the reform of political systems".
15. Stojic, Marko. (2018). "Party responses to the EU in the western Balkans : transformation, opposition or defiance?".
16. Orlović, Slaviša. (2007). "Ideologija i političke stranke u Srbiji". Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Faculty of Political Sciences, Institute for Humanities.
17. Čavoški, Aleksandra. (December 2015). "Idealism or realism in the process of EU enlargement: The case of Serbia". East European Quarterly.
18. Antonić, Slobodan. (2012). "Eurosceptism in Serbia". [[Institute of Political Studies in Belgrade]].
19. Drezgić, Rada. (2010). "Religion, Politics and Gender in the Context of Nation-State Formation: the case of Serbia". Taylor & Francis, Ltd..
20. (2010). "Serbia Country Report". Bertelsmann Transformation Index.
21. Gligorov, Vladimir. (February 2007). "Serbia: stability at risk".
22. Woehrel, Steven. (May 2013). "Serbia: Current Issues and U.S. Policy". Congressional Research Service.
23. (2005). "The Western Balkan candidates for NATO membership and partnership : a report". Centre for European Security Studies.
24. (2007). "Populism in the Balkans: The Case of Serbia". Muni Journals.
25. (22 November 2020). "Koštunica se nadao da će SR Jugoslavija ući u EU". Danas.
26. (25 February 2012). "DSS napustio Evropsku narodnu partiju".
27. (4 October 2022). "Pokret za odbranu KiM i pet partija usvojili Deklaraciju za reintegraciju KiM".
28. "Mr Miloš Aligrudić (Serbia, EDG)".
29. "Serbian ministries, etc.". B. Schemmel.