Free Citizens Movement Demands Single Opposition List

The Free Citizens Movement (PSG) announced on the evening of September 6 that it will only enter the upcoming elections if all the parties gathered around the Platform for a European Serbia and People’s Serbia unite into a single electoral column. If no such alliance comes together, the movement says it will instead back the student list, though on its own terms. This is the first time a parliamentary party has openly said it will not run in the elections at all unless the opposition unites in one column.

In its statement, PSG said running as a coalition is the only path it sees toward removing the current government:

“We believe that bringing together all political parties that share the same plan for Serbia is the only correct path toward replacing the current regime.”

Until now, the movement had been part of the Platform for a European Serbia alongside the Party of Freedom and Justice, Serbia Center, and Solidarity. That alliance, however, has grown complicated over the past several days. The People’s Movement of Serbia, led by Miroslav Aleksic, announced it would run independently, and PSG made its conditional announcement shortly after that.

The timeline is adding further pressure to the negotiations. The Party of Freedom and Justice, Serbia Center, and Solidarity have scheduled an announcement for Wednesday, September 9, at 11 a.m., on their joint decision to run in the elections together. According to media reports, that announcement could come without PSG, which would mean the movement’s condition of a united column would go unmet by its current partners.

What if a united column does not happen?

If the broader alliance fails to form, PSG has said it will support the student list, but only on the condition that the list’s actions and positions do not contradict the movement’s core principles. Vladimir Pajic, a lawmaker with the Free Citizens Movement, repeated that position on September 7 in an appearance on Nova TV.

“We still call on all opposition actors to work toward forming the broadest possible pro-European bloc.”

According to PSG, Pajic made that statement while arguing that forming a single pro-European opposition front would have the greatest impact in the elections.

The movement’s statement also makes clear that setting this condition is not a retreat from its own values:

“Our decision is not an abandonment of our own values, but rather a stronger assertion of them through a joint effort with political partners who also see Serbia’s future in the European Union. Our goal is to defeat this regime together, and then resolutely lead Serbia down the path of European integration.”

Who has backed the student list so far?

The student list already has support from part of the opposition spectrum. The parties that have thrown their backing behind it so far are:

• Democratic Party
• Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia
• Green-Left Front
• Kreni-Promeni
• Boris Tadic’s Social Democratic Party
• Dveri

If the broader alliance with its former Platform for a European Serbia partners does not materialize, PSG would add one more voice to that list of parties, though not an unconditional one. The movement has made clear that its support depends on whether the student list’s positions stay within the bounds of its own core principles, so the backing is not automatic.

Srpske novine previously reported on calls from opposition figures for the student list to be backed, in a piece titled “Pajtic calls on the opposition to support the Student List.” PSG’s decision points in the same direction, but with a clearly stated condition that had not been put this way before: a united column, or, failing that, support for the students.

Whether PSG stays aligned with the Party of Freedom and Justice, Serbia Center, and Solidarity, or whether its path splits from theirs, should become clearer as early as Wednesday, September 9, when those three parties are set to announce their decision. Until then, it remains an open question whether the opposition will enter the upcoming elections as a single column, in several smaller ones, or split apart.