Democratic Party of Serbia

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

Демократска странка Србије
Demokratska stranka Srbije
LeaderMiloš Jovanović
FounderVojislav Koštunica
FoundedJuly 26, 1992 (1992-07-26)
Split fromDemocratic Party
HeadquartersBraće Jugovića 2a
Belgrade
Membership100,000 [1]
IdeologyNational conservatism[2]
Christian democracy[2][3]
Political positionRight-wing[4]
European affiliationNone*
International affiliationNone**
ColoursBlue
SloganПоносни на прошлост, одлучно у будућност!
(Proud of the past, decisively in the future!)
National Assembly
2 / 250
Assembly of Vojvodina
0 / 120
City Assembly of Belgrade
0 / 110
Website
www.dss.rs
*Formerly associate member of the European People's Party (until 2012).
*Formerly full member of the International Democrat Union.

The Democratic Party of Serbia (Serbian: Демократска странка Србије / Demokratska stranka Srbije, pronounced [demǒkratskaː strânka sr̂bije], Serbian abbreviation: ДCC / DSS) is a national-conservative,[2] Christian-democratic[2][3] political party in Serbia.

History[edit]

Foundation[edit]

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).[5]

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 July 26, 1992 and elected Vojislav Koštunica as its first president. The first party assembly was held on December 5, 1992 and adopted the party's first manifesto.

Vojislav Koštunica, founder and first president

1992–1999[edit]

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 believe in serbian nationalism led to a division in DEPOS too. The DSS left the coalition in mid-1993.[5]

Next parliamentary elections in Serbia were called prematurely for December 19, 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.[5]

Post–2000[edit]

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 Milosevic in the 2000 Yugoslav presidential election held on 24 September 2000 winning 50.24% of the vote and defeating Slobodan Milošević who contested the election results.[5]

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.[6]

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).[citation needed]

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.

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.[7]

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.

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.

Presidents of the Democratic Party of Serbia (1992–present)[edit]

# President Born–died Term start Term end
1 Vojislav Koštunica Vojislav Kostunica.jpg 1944– 26 July 1992 19 March 2014
2 Sanda Rašković Ivić Sanda Raskovic Ivic i Djordje Vukadinovic-mc.rs Crop.jpg 1956– 12 October 2014 2 August 2016
3 Miloš Jovanović Milos Jovanovic-mc.rs.jpg 1976– 21 December 2016 Incumbent

Acting leaders[edit]

Ref:[8]

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

Electoral results[edit]

Parliamentary elections[edit]

National Assembly of Serbia
Election # of votes % of vote # of seats +/- Coalitions Government
1992 797,831 16.89%
18 / 250
 Increase 18 DEPOS opposition
1993 218.056 5.07%
7 / 250
 Decrease 11 opposition
1997 Election boycott Election boycott
0 / 250
 Decrease 7 non-parliamentary
2000 2,402,387 64.09%
45 / 250
 Increase 45 DOS government 2000–2001
opposition 2001–2003
2003 678,031 17.73%
53 / 250
 Increase 8 government
2007 667,615 16.55%
33 / 250
 Decrease 20 With NS-JS government
2008 480,987 11.62%
21 / 250
 Decrease 12 With NS opposition
2012 273,532 6.99%
21 / 250
 Steady 0 opposition
2014 152,436 4.24%
0 / 250
 Decrease 21 non-parliamentary
2016 190,530 5.04%
6 / 250
 Increase 6 With SPD opposition

Years in government (1992– )[edit]

Presidential elections[edit]

President of Serbia
Election year # Candidate 1st round votes % 2nd round votes % Notes
1992 Steady 2nd Milan Panić 1,516,693 32.11 — — Independent candidate; support
1997
Election boycott
Sep–Oct 2002 Increase 1st Vojislav Koštunica 1,123,420 30.89 1,974,450 68.4 Election declared invalid due to low turnout
Dec 2002 Steady 1st Vojislav Koštunica 1,699,098 57.66 — — Election declared invalid due to low turnout
2003
Election boycott
2004 Decrease 4th Dragan Maršićanin 414,971 13.31 — — Government Coalition (Democratic Party of Serbia, G17 Plus, Serbian Renewal Movement, New Serbia)
2008 Increase 3rd Velimir Ilić 305,828 7.43 — — Supported by: Democratic Party of Serbia, United Serbia, Serbian Renewal Movement and List for Sandžak
2012 Decrease 4th Vojislav Koštunica 290,861 7.44% — —
2017 Decrease 10th Aleksandar Popović 38,167 1.04% — —
President of FR Yugoslavia
Election year # Candidate 1st round votes % 2nd round votes %
2000 1st Vojislav Koštunica 2,470,304 50.24% — —

Positions held[edit]

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[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Partijsku knjižicu ima više od milion građana" (in Serbian). Blic. 30 December 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d Nordsieck, Wolfram (2016). "Serbia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  3. ^ a b Jeff Haynes; Anja Hennig (3 July 2013). Religious Actors in the Public Sphere: Means, Objectives, and Effects. Routledge. pp. 18–. ISBN 978-1-136-66171-6.
  4. ^ "Vukadinović: DSS, Dveri i SRS nisu ekstremna desnica". www.blic.rs.
  5. ^ a b c d "Izbori 2012 - Stranke" (in Serbian). B92. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  6. ^ "Serbia vote: Parties and players". BBC News. 24 December 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  7. ^ "DSS napustio Evropsku narodnu partiju" (in Serbian). Radio-televizija Srbije. 25 February 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  8. ^ "Serbian ministries, etc". rulers.org. B. Schemmel. Retrieved 13 August 2016.

External links[edit]

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