PSG Skips Election, Backs Student List With a Condition

The Movement of Free Citizens has decided not to run in the snap parliamentary election set for October 25, after opposition parties failed to form a single, unified list. Instead, the party will back the student list at the ballot box, though PSG leader Pavle Grbovic says that support comes with limits.

The decision was made at a session of the party’s Main Board that, according to Grbovic, lasted six hours. Until that point, PSG had been part of the Platform for a European Serbia alliance alongside the Party of Freedom and Justice, Serbia Center and Solidarity, and had previously said it would only run if all the parties gathered around the Platform for a European Serbia and People’s Serbia joined a single column. We covered that condition earlier, in the article “Movement of Free Citizens: We Run Only With One Column.” That condition has now formally fallen away, since no agreement on a joint list was reached.

How the Unified List Fell Apart

Grbovic says that as of Thursday evening he was still convinced a unified list would come together, based on conversations he’d had with leaders of the other parties.

“It’s been a rather challenging and difficult stretch behind us, the Main Board session lasted six hours, and we made hard, responsible decisions. Until Thursday evening I was convinced a unified list would happen, based on the conversations I had with other actors, that is, with leaders of other parties. And there was a sense that such a decision would be the most rational move,” Grbovic explained.

According to him, word that no agreement had actually been reached came on Thursday, when Miroslav Aleksic and Dragan Djilas informed him. Grbovic described it as a shock.

“Because a unified list sends a message of strength and unity. It sends the message that there’s no question of whether someone will clear the threshold. It provides much greater, stronger support, and a more reliable contribution to our shared goal, which is winning this election. And the fact is that since Monday the public had one picture, one expectation, and that didn’t happen, so the perception that the opposition is divided remained,” Grbovic said.

Asked how he personally feels about the whole situation, Grbovic answered with one word: “Strange.”

Once it became clear there would be no unified list, PSG also decided against forming a joint list with the Party of Freedom and Justice, Serbia Center and the Solidarity movement, its partners from the now-defunct Platform for a European Serbia. According to N1, those three have since decided to run together, while the Serbian People’s Movement, the Ecological Uprising and New Face of Serbia formed their own coalition the previous week. Grbovic maintains that the Main Board’s decision, even though not everyone in the party agreed with it, is final.

“Essentially, this can’t be changed now, PSG’s decision is final even though not everyone agreed with it. I’m also appealing to my colleagues not to spend the next 46 days trying to convince each other of things that won’t change. We won’t be active participants, but we’ll try to help ensure oversight of the election and that people turn out to vote in it,” Grbovic stressed.

What Would Make PSG Withdraw Support From the Student List?

Support for the student list, according to Grbovic, holds as long as the list’s politics and actions don’t drastically diverge from PSG’s core principles. He stressed that this is a political criterion, not a personal one.

“If it turned out to be a list or a group that started painting murals of Ratko Mladic tomorrow, or organizing poetry evenings for Radovan Karadzic, that would be a signal to PSG that it doesn’t belong there,” Grbovic concluded.

Grbovic adds that PSG’s position on unconditional support was already known.

“We have always said that unconditional support can never be guaranteed to anyone or anything,” Grbovic said, adding that the student movement is currently the strongest opposition force with the best chance of winning, which is why backing it, in his view, is the strategically smartest move.

A formal decision on backing the student list will only be made once that list is officially registered, so the exact shape of PSG’s support hasn’t been defined yet. Asked whether he believes other opposition contenders running in the election could fall short of the threshold, Grbovic says he doesn’t think so, but adds that he wouldn’t say so publicly even if he believed otherwise, since running separately carries its own risk, just as he considers PSG’s own decision to skip the election a risk to the party’s future.

Just over six weeks remain until October 25, the day of the vote, a period in which the student list is also expected to be officially registered. After that, Grbovic says, PSG will settle on the final form of its support.