Djilas: Opposition Needs Three Lists to Win in October
SSP leader Dragan Djilas explained on Nova S why the opposition should run three separate lists on October 25, then argued on X with a Nova journalist over whether the Student List is pro-European.
Dragan Djilas, leader of the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) and top candidate on the “European Serbia” list, laid out today his full reasoning for why the opposition should run three separate lists in the October 25 election rather than one. He made the case during an appearance on Nova S television, and N1 carried the remarks on September 20 at 10:20 a.m. That same day, Djilas also got into a public argument on X with Nova journalist Zeljko Veselinovic, disputing the claim that the Student List is a pro-European option.
By Djilas’s reasoning, more options on the ballot directly raise turnout.
“For that number to be as high as possible, there need to be as many options as possible on the ballot. The best way is for us to have, besides that one central Student List, one opposition list for the national option, the right wing, as well as one list for the European opposition, because together that can add up to enough,” Djilas told Nova S.
Specifically, he is proposing a combination of the Student List, Milos Jovanovic’s national right-wing list “Authentic Right,” and his own “European Serbia” list. He backs the argument with public opinion research: if the right-wing list didn’t run, half of its voters would stay home, and if the European opposition list didn’t run, between a third and half of its voters would be missing. The model he’s advocating, he says, is very similar to Montenegro’s.
“Only if we have these three lists, a model very similar to Montenegro’s, do we have a chance of defeating Aleksandar Vucic. That’s why we’re running in this election,” Djilas said.
He added that the reason for running isn’t the number of seats SSP or its coalition partners, Serbia Center and the Civic Movement Solidarity, could win, but a broader goal.
“We’re running in this election for two reasons. The first is how to defeat Aleksandar Vucic and this regime that has ruled the country, which people have been fighting for 14 years. The second is how to keep Serbia from becoming isolated from Europe, because if it becomes isolated from Europe, we run into new problems,” Djilas said.
Srpske Novine reported earlier that Marinika Tepic, one of the top candidates on the European Serbia list, had announced a fund for victims of the regime as part of the coalition’s platform ahead of the upcoming campaign. The explanation about three lists that Djilas gave today follows the same line, through which the coalition is trying to justify why it isn’t backing a single, unified opposition list.
Is the Student List a Pro-European Option?
Alongside his remarks on Nova S, Djilas clashed with Veselinovic on X over the Student List’s political stance. The Nova journalist wrote that the claim students aren’t a pro-European option comes from only a small part of the opposition.
“No one says the students aren’t a pro-European option, except that small part of the opposition which claims to be the only pro-European option,” Veselinovic wrote on X.
Djilas responded by pointing to an earlier statement from a student representative who, according to Djilas, said on television a few months ago that after a change in power a referendum should be held on continuing EU integration, and that citizens, not EU membership itself, should decide that question. Djilas contends that this same position appears in parts of the Student List’s platform that have been published in the media. His argument is that after 15 years of campaigning against Europe, support would fall to a historic low, so such a referendum would effectively mean halting EU integration and isolating Serbia.
In the sources we reviewed, there is no response from the Student List to Djilas’s claim about a referendum. We requested comment, but none had arrived by the time this article went to press.
There is also a discrepancy between sources over when the article about the dispute was published: the aggregator Naslovi.net lists it under today’s date, September 20, while the Danas website itself marks the same article September 19.
The dispute comes as three lists, including the Student List, have already submitted signatures to the Republic Election Commission (RIK) for the parliamentary election set for October 25. On the ballot, the Student List will appear as number three. Whether Djilas’s three-list model remains a lone proposal or is taken up by the rest of the opposition should become clear over the coming weeks of the campaign.
