SPS to Run Alone in Elections, Leadership Rejects Ruzic

Vladan Zagradjanin, president of the Executive Board of the Main Board of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), said on August 8, 2026, that SPS is running alone in the upcoming elections, in its usual coalition with United Serbia and the Greens of Serbia, and that there had been no talks whatsoever with the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) about a joint ticket. Novica Toncev, deputy president of the Main Board, and Dejan Backovic, a member of the Presidency, confirmed the same in separate statements given the same day.

With that, the party leadership responded by name, for the first time, to deputy president Branko Ruzic, who has for some time been calling on SPS to draw clear red lines toward the Progressives and reclaim its own political identity. Until now the public had only heard Ruzic’s appeal, while Dacic and the party’s governing bodies stayed silent.

“Ivica Dacic is the absolute leader of SPS. He has our absolute support,” Zagradjanin said. On the relationship with the coalition partner, he was brief: “We haven’t talked with SNS. Whether we will, I honestly don’t know.”

What the Main Board Decided on July 17

Zagradjanin pointed to the Main Board session held on July 17, attended, as he specified, by around 500 people, where the position of party president Ivica Dacic that the Socialists run alone was unanimously backed. The coalition he refers to is the one SPS has run with for years, alongside United Serbia and the Greens of Serbia.

A deadline was also set. By August 25, municipal, city and district branches are expected to submit their candidate lists for members of parliament, along with a proposed presidential candidate. That deadline, and Dacic’s announcement of a standalone run, is so far the only fixed point on the calendar of a party preparing for elections that have not yet been called.

Ruzic and the “Four Walls”

Asked about his deputy’s statements, Zagradjanin said decisions are made exclusively by the party’s governing bodies.

Branko Ruzic can say whatever statements he likes. He can do that within four walls, trading thoughts with friends.

He backed the argument with numbers: the SPS Presidency has 40 members, 39 of whom voted in favor, while Ruzic, he said, was not present. There is no faction within the party, he claimed.

Ruzic had called on the Socialists to draw red lines toward SNS in an interview with the Austrian news agency APA. It was not his first such statement, he has already been suspended within his own party over similar public remarks in the past. Commenting on a recent case in Knic, where local Socialists refused to cooperate with the Progressives, he went a step further.

I can only view the current developments in Knic through the lens of a general lack of self respect, an abandonment of founding principles and a masochism present in quite a few local governments, but what is even more alarming is that such tendencies exist at the very top of SPS.

That sentence is the reason the party leadership spoke out. The accusation was not aimed at a municipal branch but at the leadership itself.

Toncev and Backovic on the Same Page

Toncev avoided arguing directly with Ruzic, but stated his own position on the election run without reservation.

I have personally always believed that SPS should run independently in elections, whether local, parliamentary or presidential. I think every political party should have the strength to face voters with its own program, its own people and its own results, rather than basing its political existence on hiding behind others. I would even say a legal solution should be considered under which political parties would be required to run independently in elections.

Backovic turned the notion of red lines around, in contrast to Ruzic. For him, and, as he put it, for most of the party, those lines concern national and state interests, the fight for Kosovo and Metohija, care for the Serbian people and military neutrality, not the relationship with the Progressives. “All other topics don’t even deserve a mention, let alone a debate,” he said.

Why Does the Gap Between 4.9 and 3.8 Percent Matter?

The numbers explain why this dispute is playing out in public. According to a poll by the New Serbian Political Thought institute, a standalone SPS gets 4.9 percent. According to Crta, it gets 3.8 percent. The election threshold is three percent.

The gap between those two figures is not a nuance. In the first case, the Socialists enter parliament with a caucus that can help decide majorities. In the second, they stand a step away from falling out of parliament after several decades. A joint list with the Progressives would remove that risk, but it would also remove the reason for anyone to vote for SPS instead of SNS. Ruzic’s calculation runs the other way, he argues that drawn red lines could bring the party as much as seven percent of the vote.

What Happens Before August 25

Dacic himself has not commented on Ruzic’s statements. In late July, however, he said the party was already preparing for elections and that continued cooperation with the Progressives after election day would be in Serbia’s best interest.

But that will again depend on the people. There’s no coalition or cooperation without first winning the support of the citizens.

That sentence leaves both options open, a standalone run and a renewed coalition once the votes are counted. The first test comes on August 25, when candidate lists from 182 branches and a proposed presidential candidate are due to reach the leadership. If a presidential candidate’s name appears on those lists, the Socialists will have truly made their decision to run alone. If it doesn’t, Zagradjanin’s “I don’t know if we’ll talk” takes on a very different meaning.