Serbia's Minority Coalition Skips Leader's Name on Ballot

The minority party coalition Bratski savez 381 (Fraternal Alliance 381) announced this morning that it will contest the upcoming parliamentary election with a list that carries no political leader’s name. The coalition says the decision is deliberate, and rests on its opposition to what it calls the personalization of power.

The list runs under the name “Bratski savez 381, Together for Our Country.” Coalition 381 has so far been presented as an alliance of four parties: the Bosniak Civic Party, the Party of Montenegrins, the Vlach People’s Party, and the Civic Alliance of Hungarians. Some outlets that carried the announcement the same day listed a wider membership, adding three more parties, the Serb-Hungarian Alliance, the Alliance of Bosniaks of Vojvodina, and the Alliance of Yugoslavs, so sources do not agree on the exact number of parties in the coalition. The gap between four and seven named members suggests the statement circulated in more than one version, or that some outlets padded out the list of signatories on their own, rather than pointing to an error by any single newsroom over a party’s name.

In its statement, the coalition explains why it dropped the usual practice of naming a leader on the list. “A leader’s visibility can be part of politics. But when the leader becomes more important than the idea, the institutions and the people who represent that idea, politics stops being a space for different opinions and becomes a space for the personalization of power. We do not accept that,” the statement reads.

The coalition goes on to say the list is putting forward the idea of togetherness, not a single political group or one man. “That is why our alliance brings together people of different national communities, political backgrounds and views. Serbs, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Vlachs, Hungarians, Yugoslavs, and everyone else who believes that differences do not have to turn into divisions. The idea of togetherness among all national communities in Serbia is stronger than any single name that might represent it,” the statement adds.

The political platform behind the coalition’s run is called “Manifest 381” and rests on three pillars: sovereignty and strategic integration, democratization of the electoral system, and what the coalition describes as real rights for national minorities, along with the right to a healthy life and dignified work. The statement did not spell out specific measures from the manifesto; a full pre-election program is expected only after the election is officially called, in line with usual practice.

Dropping a leader-led list sets Coalition 381 apart from the rest of the campaign so far. The ruling Serbian Progressive Party is running with a list headed by President Aleksandar Vucic, the most personalized formula on offer. On the opposition side, the question of leadership has been the subject of negotiations in recent weeks, ever since Milos Aleksic turned down a joint list with Dragan Djilas, prompting the National Movement of Serbia to opt instead for the People’s Serbia coalition. The minority coalition thus becomes the first list in this year’s cycle to explicitly, rather than for lack of a leader to name, refuse to place any politician’s name ahead of its party program.

Parliamentary elections in Serbia have not formally been called yet. President Vucic has said he will call them on September 9 or 10, with voting expected on October 25, according to that announcement. For minority lists like Coalition 381, election law provides an easier path into the Assembly, since the regular three percent threshold that other lists must clear does not apply to them.

Whether the coalition’s membership count will be settled by the time the election is officially called, and whether reports on exactly who stands behind the leaderless list will line up, remains to be seen once the Republic Election Commission publishes the official list of election participants.