Workers' Party Joins Vucic's Election List

The Workers’ Party announced on Tuesday, September 9, that it will run in the upcoming parliamentary elections on the “Aleksandar Vucic, United Serbia” list, and that it backs Vucic as the mandate holder for the future government. The statement went out around noon; the portal 021 carried it at 1:52 PM, and Tanjug at 2:01 PM.

In the statement, the party says it had earlier invited the government, the opposition, and the Student Movement to talks on specific issues affecting workers and citizens. According to the party, no opposition political option responded to the invitation, while the Serbian Progressive Party agreed to talk.

“By running in the elections on the ‘United Serbia’ list, the Workers’ Party wants to secure stronger political space to represent the interests of workers and citizens,” the party said in its statement.

The Workers’ Party announced it will push in parliament for a new Labor Law, stronger workers’ rights, and greater job security. The party is also demanding better conditions for employees, along with protection of pensioners’ living standards.

“Issues of labor, wages, employment, pensions, and livelihood security must be among the priorities of state policy,” the statement adds.

Who else has joined the list

The list is headed by Aleksandar Vucic, the Serbian Progressive Party’s candidate for prime minister. The Workers’ Party is now the third political entity to join it. The first was the Party of United Pensioners, Farmers and Proletarians of Serbia, which we reported on earlier, followed by the Serbian Radical Party.

The Radicals made that call on September 6, at a session of the party’s Central Homeland Administration. Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj explained the move as a bet against the risk that the party would fail to clear the electoral threshold running alone.

“If there is a risk that we won’t cross the threshold, and these pollsters say that risk exists, we decided to run on the ‘United Serbia’ list,” Seselj said, explaining the decision to join the joint list.

Same motive, two different explanations

The common thread running through the moves by the Radicals and the Workers’ Party is the assessment that running alone in the October 25 elections would make it harder to enter parliament than joining forces with the SNS list. The Workers’ Party, unlike the Radicals, adds a second argument: that the opposition did not answer its invitation to talk, while the ruling party did.

This needs to be stated precisely. The claim that no opposition party responded to the invitation for talks comes solely from the Workers’ Party itself, from its own statement, and has not so far been confirmed by any opposition party or independent source. In political circles, such invitations from smaller parties are often read as a prelude to joining an already announced list, not necessarily as a serious bid for a broader pre-election deal ahead of the vote set for October 25.

So far, the parties joining the “United Serbia” list share a narrow voter base: pensioners, radicals, and now a workers’ organization, all groups that judge a solo run would not guarantee them a seat in parliament. For the Serbian Progressive Party, each such addition means an extra vote in a campaign fought under a single name, that of the list’s leader, while the smaller parties within it keep their own identity and program.

How many more parties will join the same coalition before the lists close is still an open question, as is whether any of the parties that, according to the Workers’ Party, have so far ignored its invitation for talks will end up among them. An answer should come next week, ahead of the deadline for submitting election lists.