Narodna Srbija Withdraws Election List, Backs Students
The coalition of Miroslav Aleksic, Aleksandar Jovanovic Cuta and Milos Parandilovic handed the election commission a list with 10,500 signatures, then pulled it from the October 25 race the same day.
On September 15, the Narodna Srbija coalition submitted an election list called “Izbor naroda” (People’s Choice) to the Republic Election Commission (RIK), then withdrew it from the race for the October 25 election that same day. The decision was announced outside the RIK building by the coalition’s three leaders, Miroslav Aleksic, Aleksandar Jovanovic Cuta and Milos Parandilovic, who said the coalition was putting its resources and election monitors at the disposal of the Student List. N1 published the news at 5:39 PM, Danas at 6:25 PM.
Narodna Srbija was made up of three parties: the People’s Movement of Serbia led by Miroslav Aleksic, the Ecological Uprising led by Aleksandar Jovanovic Cuta, and the New Face of Serbia led by Milos Parandilovic. This paper had previously reported that the coalition was breaking apart from within, that the New Face of Serbia and the Ecological Uprising were leaving Narodna Srbija, and that some local boards had already shifted to the students. Filing the list and withdrawing it the same day confirms that anticipated outcome, only at a faster pace than expected.
According to the announcement outside the RIK, the list had gathered 10,500 signatures from citizens across Serbia. Despite that, the coalition framed the filing and withdrawal as its contribution to unity within the opposition front ahead of the election.
“We submitted the list, but the decision of our coalition, Narodna Srbija, is that for the sake of the referendum atmosphere we are withdrawing our list, and that this be our contribution to unity,” said Miroslav Aleksic, president of the People’s Movement of Serbia, outside the RIK building. He added that every organization has the right to decide for itself.
“I think that today we sent a clear message to everyone: let each person act as they believe is best and most effective in the fight for a normal Serbia,” Aleksic said.
According to available information, the initiative to withdraw came from the New Face of Serbia. That party’s leadership unanimously proposed to its coalition partners that the list be withdrawn and the Student List supported instead. New Face of Serbia president Milos Parandilovic described the decision as a joint one.
“As responsible people, we made the joint decision that the best option at this moment, and in the interest of all citizens, is to withdraw our election list and support the student struggle, because I believe these are elections in which we are deciding clearly and unambiguously,” Parandilovic said outside the RIK building.
Ecological Uprising leader Aleksandar Jovanovic Cuta confirmed that the coalition was shifting its entire capacity to the Student List.
“We will put our entire resources and monitors at the service of the Student List. I want to thank my comrades from Stara Planina, and many challenges still await us, so that the students win and the country becomes healthy,” Cuta said.
Narodna Srbija’s withdrawal is not an isolated move within the opposition camp. According to N1, the Student List has so far been backed by the parliamentary parties Democratic Party, Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia, Green-Left Front and Movement of Free Citizens, as well as a number of non-parliamentary movements, local lists and associations across Serbia, from Kreni-promeni and the Social Democratic Party of Boris Tadic to dozens of local initiatives in cities such as Cacak, Kraljevo, Sremski Karlovci and Zrenjanin. Support also came from two associations of the Serb community in Kosovo, the Serb National Movement and the Kosovo Alliance, as well as the Serbian National Forum from Gracanica.
With Narodna Srbija out of the race, the pro-European opposition parties still running in the October 25 election are the list gathered around the Party of Freedom and Justice and Serbia at the Centre. It remains an open question whether there will be further withdrawals in favor of the Student List before the election, or whether the consolidation of the opposition front has now been completed with this move.
