Miloš Jovanović and Vojislav Mihailović
Photo: Facebook / Nova Demokratska stranka Srbije
BELGRADE – List submitted by the coalition of the New Democratic Party of Serbia (NDSS) and the Movement for the Renewal of the Kingdom of Serbia (POKS) has been proclaimed at today’s session of the Republic Electoral Commission.
The parties formed a coalition National Democratic Alternative (NADA, which also means “hope”) three years ago. It won 5.37% of the vote in last year’s election, outperforming most of its polls.
The New Democratic Party of Serbia evolved from the original Democratic Party of Serbia, which was led by former President of Yugoslavia and Prime Minister of Serbia Vojislav Koštunica. It is now led by Miloš Jovanović, Professor at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade.
Movement for the Renewal of the Kingdom of Serbia is currently led by Vojislav Mihailović, an active participant in Serbian politics since the 1990s and the grandson of the World War Two Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović.
The parties, together with the rest of the right-wing opposition, reject agreements reached with Kosovo and are against Serbia’s EU membership and sanctions on Russia.
They were in negotiations for a joint electoral list with the rest of the right-wing opposition, but the negotiations failed. A stumbling block seems to have been the demand by the New DSS for the parties to publically pledge to cooperate with pro-EU opposition after the elections so that the SNS government is removed from power, which was unacceptable to the National Rally coalition.
Jovanović has sharpened his rhetoric towards the ruling party compared to last year’s election, attributing the change to the acceptance of the Brussels/Ohrid agreement in February and March. He has also become a more frequent target of the attacks of the ruling party and the pro-government media.
“We are going into these elections with great optimism and the awareness that things must change” said Jovanović yesterday on the occasion of the submission of the list, adding that never in its history has Serbia been controlled by one man the way it is today.
