Djilas, Srce, Solidarnost to Announce Election Run

The Party of Freedom and Justice, Srbija centar and the Civic Movement Solidarity will announce on Wednesday, September 9, at 11 a.m., on the square in front of Serbia’s National Assembly, that they are running together in the upcoming elections. According to the newspaper Danas, cited by the outlets Nova and Razglas, the three parties could run without their fourth partner so far, the Movement of Free Citizens. The press conference comes days after Miroslav Aleksic, leader of the People’s Movement of Serbia, told Dragan Djilas that his party would not join a joint list with the Platform for a European Serbia.

The invitation sent to media does not name the topic outright, but Danas sources say that announcement is exactly what will be delivered from the square outside parliament.

Who has been part of the platform so far

The Platform for a European Serbia has so far comprised four parties: Dragan Djilas’s Party of Freedom and Justice, Zdravko Ponos’s Srbija centar, the Movement of Free Citizens and Goran Jesic’s Civic Movement Solidarity. Based on what has been announced so far, Wednesday’s statement would formalize a column of three parties, while the status of the Movement of Free Citizens would remain open after the conference.

On September 4, Aleksic informed the Party of Freedom and Justice that the People’s Movement of Serbia, which together with the New Face of Serbia and the Ecological Uprising makes up the People’s Serbia bloc, would not run in coalition with the Platform for a European Serbia. The party cited the timing as too late for a deal and said its membership was against a joint list. N1’s newsroom tried to get an explanation directly from Aleksic, but he has not responded to questions put to him so far.

What Djilas and Aleksic said

The SSP leader confirmed the People’s Movement of Serbia’s decision to N1.

“Miroslav Aleksic informed us that they decided to go alone, that they think that way they’ll get more votes, and that’s that,” Djilas said, adding that the meeting had discussed two blocs in the elections, the Platform for a European Serbia and People’s Serbia.

Aleksic explained his side of it in a statement carried by the outlet 021.

“Someone gave up on that and went their own way, and they had every right to,” the People’s Movement of Serbia leader said, without elaborating further on the dispute.

The Movement of Free Citizens’ condition

On Sunday, September 6, the Movement of Free Citizens announced it would only run in the elections if all the parties from both the Platform for a European Serbia and People’s Serbia appeared on a single, unified list. If that does not happen, the PSG said it would back the students’ list instead. That condition shifted the pressure onto SSP, Srce and Solidarnost to decide their own path, which, according to Danas, is what led to Wednesday’s press conference being called.

Wednesday’s announcement would thus be the first formal confirmation that part of the former Platform for a European Serbia is splitting off into its own column, regardless of whether the Movement of Free Citizens later joins it. Srpske vesti previously reported that the opposition in the upcoming elections is splitting into sixteen lists, and tomorrow’s decision could shift that number further, depending on how the PSG ultimately positions itself.

Snap parliamentary elections have not yet been formally called. Media close to the government reported this week that they should be held on October 25, but that date has not been officially confirmed as of today.

It remains to be seen whether the conference on the square outside parliament will also clarify the fate of the Movement of Free Citizens, whose condition for a joint column is still on the table, and whether Miroslav Aleksic’s People’s Serbia bloc will stay fully separate from the rest of the opposition through the elections.