Nestorovic and Narodna Stranka Form Election Coalition

The Mi Snaga Naroda movement, led by professor Dr. Branimir Nestorovic, announced on September 7 that it had decided to form an election coalition with Narodna Stranka. The statement arrived that morning, and the movement sent a copy to the Srpske Novine newsroom the same day at 8 a.m., from the address of its parliamentary group in the National Assembly, with a request that it be published. The coalition between the two right-leaning opposition parties was thus confirmed from both sides, two days after Narodna Stranka’s party leadership had unanimously made the same decision.

Narodna Stranka’s presidency met on the evening of September 5, and, as the party stated on its website, concluded that technical negotiations over the coalition were already in their final stage. Nestorovic’s movement confirmed the decision from its side two days later, in a statement that both camps formulated in almost identical language.

The movement’s statement says the coalition will run on a shared political platform that will be “clearly and unambiguously sovereigntist, Euroskeptic, integralist and democratic.” Narodna Stranka described the same platform, in nearly the same words, as the foundation on which the joint list will “stand,” adding that it will “do everything in its power not to take part in a dirty campaign.” Both sides agree, according to their statements, that political struggle must be based on arguments rather than on stigmatization and hatred toward political opponents.

Why This Is Happening Now

The decision is not just about policy. The movement’s statement also includes a line that reads as a response to a years-old accusation:

“For years, attempts have been made to portray Prof. Dr. Branimir Nestorovic and his movement as part of the regime or its covert support. This coalition once again confirms what we have said from the very beginning: Nestorovic was not, and never will be, part of Aleksandar Vucic’s regime,” the movement said in its statement.

Since entering politics, Nestorovic has faced criticism from part of the opposition that his movement, despite its sovereigntist and Euroskeptic rhetoric, is functionally close to the ruling party. The coalition with Narodna Stranka, which places itself in the same ideological family, gives the movement a partner that does not share that assessment, and according to our information that was one of the reasons a longer round of behind-the-scenes talks in the National Assembly’s corridors preceded the negotiations, before the decision was made public.

A Second Column on the Right

With this coalition, the right-leaning wing of the opposition scene splits into at least two separate columns. One is made up of Mi Snaga Naroda and Narodna Stranka, running on a platform both sides describe as sovereigntist, Euroskeptic, integralist and democratic. The other is the Authentic Right list, formed earlier by the New Democratic Party of Serbia and the Monarchists.

As Srpske Novine has reported previously, the opposition is entering the upcoming election cycle divided across 16 lists. This coalition does not reduce that number, since it merges two parties that had already been running separately from the rest of the opposition spectrum, but it confirms that the fragmentation of the right continues along ideological rather than personal lines.

Early parliamentary elections are expected on October 25. For now the date remains an announcement, since the elections have not formally been called, and that step will also determine whether the Mi Snaga Naroda and Narodna Stranka coalition runs under a single joint election list or whether its composition changes before then.

Until then, it appears, the question of how the rest of the right-leaning opposition will position itself toward the new coalition also remains open, given that the Authentic Right list is for now running separately, with no joint agreement with Nestorovic’s movement and Narodna Stranka.