Seselj Billboard in Novi Sad Stays Until October 8
City inspectors have explained for the first time why the Serbian Radical Party banner was never taken down from the facade on Bulevar Mihajla Pupina.
The billboard showing Vojislav Seselj on the building at Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 18b in central Novi Sad, directly across from the seat of the Vojvodina provincial government, will stay on the facade at least until October 8, 2026. The City Administration for Inspection Affairs of Novi Sad said on July 29 that the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) had obtained a permit from the competent authority for the banner and that the administrative case is now closed.
According to the city statement, the banner was mounted in line with the permit that was issued. The advertising space is leased by the party’s Novi Sad city board, and the banner carries the claim that no genocide took place in Srebrenica, along with the slogan “Fatherland Serbia, Mother Russia” and the party leader’s portrait against a Serbian flag.
What did inspectors order last March?
The case began in mid-February 2025, when a group of Novi Sad lawyers filed a complaint with the city inspectorate asking for the banner to come down. On March 27, 2025, the City Administration for Inspection Affairs issued a ruling ordering the party to remove the advertising structure within thirty days, with an explicit warning that it would otherwise be taken down by force.
That never happened. In early May 2025 the party signed a fresh lease for the same advertising space and the billboard stayed put. Sixteen months separate that ruling from the July 29 statement, and the same office now says the matter is settled, with the opposite outcome.
The party’s position
Djuradj Jaksic, president of the SRS city board in Novi Sad and deputy mayor of the city, said the billboard adorns the party’s headquarters in Novi Sad and will continue to do so. The space was leased under the rules, he said, and the city administration was informed about the lease.
Jaksic sits on both sides of this file. He is a party official defending the banner and, at the same time, a member of the city government whose administration rules on it.
The journalist who asked for its removal
The issue was reopened by journalist Igor Mihaljevic, who publicly called for the billboard to be removed on the grounds that Seselj is a convicted war criminal. “Although I am not a lawyer, I am deeply convinced that this is illegal and immoral, because that man is a convicted war criminal,” Mihaljevic said.
Asked about the fact that Seselj is a free man after serving his sentence, he argued that this does not restore everything to him:
“Seselj is indeed a free man once he has served his sentence, but some civil liberties and rights are by definition withheld from him because of the monstrosity and gravity of the crimes he committed in his life,” Mihaljevic said.
His objection is a public argument rather than a legal filing, so the inspectorate has nothing to act on there. The procedure that did run was triggered by the lawyers’ complaint a year and a half ago.
A poster of Ratko Mladic appeared nearby on the day marking the Srebrenica genocide and was removed shortly afterwards. The radicals’ banner, far larger and mounted on a facade covered by a lease, fared differently.
The city’s answer says nothing about the message on the billboard. It addresses one question only, whether the advertising space was leased in line with the rules. The permit runs out on October 8, 2026, and on that date the file lands back on the desk of the same office that ordered the removal sixteen months ago.
