Movement of Socialists
Покрет социјалиста
Pokret socijalista
AbbreviationPS
LeaderBojan Torbica
FounderAleksandar Vulin
Founded8 August 2008 (2008-08-08)
Split fromSocialist Party of Serbia
HeadquartersBulevar Milutina Milankovića 120B, Belgrade
Ideology
National affiliationSerbia Must Not Stop
Colours
  •   Red
  •   Yellow
National Assembly
2 / 250
Assembly of Vojvodina
2 / 120
City Assembly of Belgrade
1 / 110
Party flag
Website
pokretsocijalista.rs

The Movement of Socialists (Serbian Cyrillic: Покрет социјалиста, romanized: Pokret socijalista, abbr. PS) is a left-wing nationalist political party in Serbia. It was founded in 2008 by Aleksandar Vulin, who served as the party's president until 2022 when he was succeeded by Bojan Torbica.

History

It was founded on 8 August 2008 by Aleksandar Vulin, a former high-ranking member of Yugoslav Left[1] who left it in 1998 after perceiving the party to have "betrayed its program and became a political mask for the wealthy sitting in the party".[2] It is a part of the governing coalition with the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). It was formed by former members of the Socialist Party of Serbia because they disagreed with the pro-European policy of the party; however, it was a member of the pro-European SNS-led coalitions in the 2012 (as part of Let's Get Serbia Moving alliance) and in the 2014 Serbian parliamentary elections. In December 2022, Vulin resigned as the leader of PS after being appointed as the director of the Security Intelligence Agency.[3]

Ideology and platform

It is a self-described radical left[4] or leftist political party,[5] and has been identified to be a part of the leftist camp in Serbian politics.[6] Observers have described it as a centre-left party.[1] The party has been assessed as social-democratic and left-wing nationalist.[7][8] Its foreign views are orientated towards Euroscepticism,[7][9] and have been accused of being anti-Western-orientated.[10] PS is supportive of further cooperation with China and Russia.[11]

It was created as a party vehicle for Vulin,[12] who has been described as a nationalist,[13][14] and has expressed irredentist views.[15][16] In 2022, PS proclaimed "Serbian world" as its primary political idea and goal.[17] It has been also described as a satellite party of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.[18]

In an opinion article, Miloš Baković Jadžić, now-leader of the Political Platform Solidarity and member of the party Together, criticised PS by describing it as a conservative and neoliberal party "with nothing in common with progressive left-wing politics but its name, symbolism, occasional rhetoric and a somewhat radical program," having engaged in active anti-worker and anti-progressive politics.[19] Sociologist Jovo Bakić has also disputed the leftism of PS due to "their support for the nationalistic and neoliberal policies".[20] Political theorist Srećko Horvat noted PS' participation in the governing coalition's "harsh neoliberal measures, including pension cuts, public sector wage cuts, deregulation and labor market flexibilization" and minister Vulin's direct responsibility for "one of the worst new labor laws" that had been passed in Serbia in 2014. He further discredited the party as having nothing to do with socialism or left-wing politics.[21]

In 2015, Vulin said that he was opposed to same-sex marriage and that, as minister for social policy, he would never sign a law making it possible.[22]

Organisation

Its headquarters are at Bulevar Milutina Milankovića 120B in Belgrade.[23]

List of presidents

# President Born–Death Term start Term end
1 Aleksandar Vulin 1972– 7 August 2008 5 December 2022
2 Bojan Torbica 1974– 5 December 2022 Incumbent

Electoral performance

Parliamentary elections

National Assembly of Serbia
Year Leader Popular vote % of popular vote # # of seats Seat change Coalition Status Ref.
2012 Aleksandar Vulin 940,659 25.16% Increase 1st
1 / 250
 Increase 1 PS Government [24]
2014 1,736,920 49.96% Steady 1st
3 / 250
 Increase 2 BKV Government [25]
2016 1,823,147 49.71% Steady 1st
3 / 250
 Steady 0 SP Government [26]
2020 1,953,998 63.02% Steady 1st
3 / 250
 Steady 0 ZND Government [27]
2022 1,635,101 44.27% Steady 1st
2 / 250
 Decrease 1 ZMS Support [28]
2023 Bojan Torbica 1,783,701 48.07% Steady 1st
2 / 250
 Steady 0 SNSDS TBA
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Presidential elections

President of Serbia
Year Candidate 1st round popular vote % of popular vote 2nd round popular vote % of popular vote Notes Ref.
2012 Tomislav Nikolić 2nd 979,216 26.22% 1st 1,552,063 51.16% Supported Nikolić [24]
2017 Aleksandar Vučić 1st 2,012,788 56.01% — — — Supported Vučić [29]
2022 1st 2,224,914 60.01% — — — [30]

References

  1. ^ a b "Vučić: Zajedno zbog Srbije, izbori će biti prekretnica". Radio Television of Vojvodina (in Serbian). 18 July 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  2. ^ "Vučićev klaun s misijom otkrivanja neprijatelja Srbije". Nacional (in Croatian). 7 April 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Pokret socijalista posle Vulinove ostavke vodi Bojan Torbica". Danas (in Serbian). 5 December 2022. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  4. ^ "Serbian Social Democracy in Transition: A View from the Periphery". EuroCité — le think tank européen progressiste. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Vulin pozvao SNS da kandiduje Vučića za predsednika Srbije". Radio Television of Serbia (in Serbian). 22 December 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  6. ^ Petsinis, Vassilis (28 June 2017). "Enter Serbia's 'Orbán'? Aleksandar Vučić and his catch-all politics". openDemocracy. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  7. ^ a b Styczyńska, Natasza; Dajč, Haris (27 January 2022), "Between the past and the future", The Right-Wing Critique of Europe (1 ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 146–159, doi:10.4324/9781003226123-14, ISBN 978-1-003-22612-3
  8. ^ Alvarado, Jose (11 January 2019). "Assessing Serbian enthusiasm for EU membership". Europe Elects. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Vulin: Razmisliti o promeni politike". Danas (in Serbian). 21 May 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  10. ^ "Aleksandar Vulin: Znam da je razgraničenje dobro čim se Zapad protivi". Novosti (in Serbian). 5 September 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  11. ^ Styczyńska, Natasza (29 November 2021). "Who Are Belgrade's Most Desired Allies?: Narrative on the European Union, China and Russia during Serbian Parliamentary Campaign of 2020". Politeja. 18 (4(73)): 85–96. doi:10.12797/Politeja.18.2021.73.05. ISSN 2391-6737.
  12. ^ Dedeić, Siniša (12 July 2021). "Vulinova stranka "borbene levice" i "razočaranih socijalista"". Istinomer (in Serbian). Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  13. ^ "Zašto su Albanci za Vulina 'Šiptari'?". Radio Slobodna Evropa (in Serbo-Croatian). 2 May 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  14. ^ "Ko je psihopata koji širi mržnju i strah: Vulin nekada bio zakleti ateista i revolucionar, danas veliki pravoslavac i nacionalista". Aktuelno (in Bosnian). 25 July 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  15. ^ "Vulin: Nacionalno pitanje rešiti ujedinjenjem Srba u jednoj državi". N1 (in Serbian). 18 April 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  16. ^ "Vulin: "Srpski svet" jedan državni prostor, ostvarićemo ga bez ispaljenog metka". N1 (in Serbian). 18 July 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  17. ^ "SRPSKI SVET" [SERBIAN WORLD]. www.pokretsocijalista.rs. 25 June 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  18. ^ Panović, Zoran (3 October 2021). "Vučić i nacionalna levica". Danas (in Serbian). Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  19. ^ Baković Jadžić, Miloš (18 December 2014). "Pokret socijalista: socijalna demagogija, neoliberalna politika" (in Serbian). Bilten. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  20. ^ Ristić, Irena (2021). Resetting the Left in Europe: challenges, attempts and obstacles. Belgrade: Institute of Social Sciences. p. 247. ISBN 978-86-7093-245-6. COBISS.SR 43960585.
  21. ^ Horvat, Srećko (15 December 2014). "Cipras u Sohou". Novosti. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  22. ^ "Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People in Europe 2016" (PDF). ILGA-Europe. May 2016. p. 148. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  23. ^ "Izvod iz registra političkih stranaka" [Extract from the Register of Political Parties] (PDF) (in Serbian). Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government. p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  24. ^ a b Vukmirović, Dragan (2012). Izbori za narodne poslanike Narodne skupštine Republike Srbije i za predsednika Republike Srbije [Elections for Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and for the President of the Republic of Serbia] (PDF) (in Serbian). Belgrade: Republički zavod za statistiku. p. 9. ISBN 978-86-6161-021-9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  25. ^ Vukmirović, Dragan (2014). Izbori za narodne poslanike Narodne skupštine Republike Srbije [Elections for Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia] (PDF) (in Serbian). Belgrade: Republički zavod za statistiku. p. 9. ISBN 978-86-6161-108-7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  26. ^ Kovačević, Miladin (2016). Izbori za narodne poslanike Narodne skupštine Republike Srbije [Elections for Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia] (PDF) (in Serbian). Belgrade: Republički zavod za statistiku. p. 9. ISBN 978-86-6161-154-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  27. ^ Kovačević, Miladin (2020). Izbori za narodne poslanike Narodne skupštine Republike Srbije [Elections for Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia] (PDF) (in Serbian). Belgrade: Republički zavod za statistiku. p. 9. ISBN 978-86-6161-193-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  28. ^ Kovačević, Miladin (2022). Izbori za narodne poslanike Narodne skupštine Republike Srbije [Elections for Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia] (PDF) (in Serbian). Belgrade: Republički zavod za statistiku. p. 7. ISBN 978-86-6161-221-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  29. ^ Kovačević, Miladin (2017). Izbori za predsednika Republike Srbije [Elections for the President of the Republic of Serbia] (PDF) (in Serbian). Beograd: Republički zavod za statistiku. p. 9. ISBN 978-86-6161-164-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 January 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  30. ^ Kovačević, Miladin (2022). Izbori za predsednika Republike Srbije [Elections for the President of the Republic of Serbia] (PDF) (in Serbian). Belgrade: Republički zavod za statistiku. p. 7. ISBN 978-86-6161-220-6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.

External links

Political parties in Serbia
Categories