SRS Backs Vucic for PM on United Serbia List

The Serbian Radical Party announced today, September 6, that it will run in the upcoming parliamentary election on the “United Serbia” list built around the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, and that it backs Aleksandar Vucic as the candidate for prime minister. The decision was made on Sunday at a session of the SRS Central Homeland Administration, with the party’s statement released around 12:44 p.m. and picked up by wire services shortly before 2 p.m.

The move reshapes the list ahead of the election called for October 25. Vucic has said he will formally call the election on September 9 or 10, and the SNS Main Board has already named him the list’s lead candidate and prime minister designate. With this step, the Radicals, the party shaped for decades by Vojislav Seselj, are for the first time in this election cycle publicly aligning with the ruling list rather than running on their own.

The party laid out a wide range of reasons for the decision, from preserving peace and stability to continuing investment projects and safeguarding the constitutional order.

“Over the past two years, we, the Serbian Radicals, have actively resisted attempts to carry out a color revolution in Serbia, and we will mobilize all of the party’s capacity to prevent power in Serbia from being seized in the streets, and to prevent political forces whose center of decision making lies abroad from coming to power in Serbia,” the Central Homeland Administration said in its statement.

The language about a “color revolution” and power being seized in the streets echoes rhetoric the ruling majority has used for months against parts of the opposition and the protest movement, which makes the SRS endorsement a political message as much as a technical arrangement over list positions.

The party said the decision was “guided by state-building policy, in the interest of preserving peace and stability, continuing major investment projects and safeguarding the constitutional order of the Republic of Serbia.” The Radicals added that “Serbia must be united when it faces major challenges and trials.”

The statement went on to say the SRS has “no doubt that the Serbian people will show political maturity on October 25 and will place their trust in the prominent patriots who put Serbia first.” With those words, the party is forecasting the outcome of the vote even though, by Vucic’s own timeline, the election is still three to four days from being formally called.

For the United Serbia list itself, this is the second confirmation within just a few days of how broad the coalition has grown, after it was already known that Vucic had been named its lead candidate. The SRS’s entry does not change who formally heads the list or who is running for prime minister, but it widens the circle of parties standing behind him ahead of the election Vucic has set for October 25, 2026. According to the statement, the Radicals voiced their confidence that “the Serbian people will show political maturity” even before the election process was formally underway, meaning the endorsement was presented as a done deal, with no room left for the party to change its position later.

News of the Radicals’ decision was carried by the Beta news agency and then picked up by several domestic news outlets. As of this writing, the SRS had not said whether it will seek specific list positions or ministerial posts in negotiations over the list’s makeup, and the SNS leadership had made no comment on the matter either. The final list of candidates for United Serbia, and where the Radicals’ representatives will land on it, will only be known once Vucic formally calls the election, expected on September 9 or 10.