Serbian Radical Party

For other uses, see Serbian Radical Party (disambiguation).

Serbian Radical Party
Српска радикална странка
AbbreviationSRS
PresidentVojislav Šešelj
Deputy PresidentAleksandar Šešelj
Vice-Presidents
Founders
Founded23 February 1991 (1991-02-23)
Split from
HeadquartersMagistratski trg 3, Belgrade
NewspaperVelika Srbija
Paramilitary wingWhite Eagles (1991–1995)
Ideology
Political positionFar-right
Colours  Blue
Slogan"Србија је вечна док су јој деца верна"
("Serbia is eternal as long as its children are loyal")
Anthem"Sprem'te se sprem'te"
National Assembly
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Assembly of Vojvodina
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City Assembly of Belgrade
2 / 110
Party flag
Website
srpskaradikalnastranka.org.rs

The Serbian Radical Party (Serbian: Српска радикална странка, romanized: Srpska radikalna stranka, abbr. SRS) is a far-right,[1] ultranationalist[2] political party in Serbia. Founded in 1991, its co-founder, first and only leader is Vojislav Šešelj.[3]

The SRS was founded in 1991 as a merger of the Serbian Chetnik Movement, led by Šešelj, and the People's Radical Party, led by Tomislav Nikolić. Upon formation, they became the president and deputy president of SRS respectively. During the first half of the 1990s the SRS supported the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia regime, which had contributed greatly to the rise of SRS through the use of media.[3] The party had strong support until the 2000 election, when SRS suffered a major defeat, but through populist rhetoric it became the most voted party in the early-to-mid 2000s. Šešelj voluntarily surrendered to the ICTY to defend himself against charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity that he was alleged to have committed during the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War. Nikolić assumed de facto party leadership until he left the party in 2008.[4]

During the years of Nikolić's leadership, SRS blended ultranationalism with brash, populist, and anti-corruption rhetoric.[5] Due to disagreements with Šešelj over European Union integration, Nikolić took many of the high-ranking members of the party to form the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which became the ruling party of Serbia in 2012. After the split, Dragan Todorović assumed de facto leadership, and the party went into a major decline, only pulling 4% of the vote in 2012 and 2% in 2014, the first time that SRS was not represented in the parliament. Shortly after Šešelj's return to Serbia in 2014, the party gained back some of its popularity and it placed third with 8% of the vote in the 2016 election.[6] In late 2019, the party went into decline again, and in the 2020 election it ended up only with 2% of the vote and gaining no seats in the parliament again.

A right-wing populist party,[7][8][9] SRS supports the creation of a Greater Serbia.[10][11] It is Eurosceptic, anti-Western orientated, opposed to the accession of Serbia to the European Union and supports establishing closer ties with Russia instead.[12][13][14] Some journalists described SRS as neofascist in the 1990s due to its vocal support of ultranationalism.[15][16][17][18] Regarding social issues, SRS is traditionalist.[19] It also holds local branches in some of the neighbouring states.

  1. ^
    • Reinhard Heinisch; Emanuele Massetti; Oscar Mazzoleni, eds. (2019). The People and the Nation: Populism and Ethno-Territorial Politics in Europe. Routledge. ISBN 9781351265546. The program of the radical right-wing SRS was founded upon the same principles.
    • Kolstø, Pål (2009). Media Discourse and the Yugoslav Conflicts : Representations of Self and Other. Ashgate. p. 106. ISBN 978-0754676294.
    • Collective (2005). Serbia since 1989: politics and society under Milošević and after. University of Washington Press. p. 372. ISBN 978-0295986500.
    • Michael Minkenberg (15 April 2014). Historical Legacies and the Radical Right in Post-Cold War Central and Eastern Europe. Columbia University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-3-8382-6124-9.
    • Džuverović, Nemanja; Stojarová, Věra (2022). Peace and Security in the Western Balkans: A Local Perspective. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000628722. Although far-right parties are numerous throughout the region, they can boast no real successes, with the exception the far-right Serbian Radical Party (Srpska Radikalna Stranka, SRS)
    • Sōtēropulos, Dēmētrēs A. (2023). The irregular pendulum of democracy: populism, clientelism and corruption in post-Yugoslav successor states. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 146. ISBN 9783031256097.
    • Levitsky, Steven; Way, Lucan A. (2010). Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. Cambridge University Press. p. 108. ISBN 9781139491488.
  2. ^
  3. ^ a b Pribićević 1999, p. 193.
  4. ^ "Serb opposition leader resigns". BBC News. 7 September 2008. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  5. ^ Ostojić, Mladen (2016). Between Justice and Stability: The Politics of War Crimes Prosecutions in Post-Miloševic Serbia. Routledge. p. 12. ISBN 9781317175001.
  6. ^ Delauney, Guy (25 April 2016). "Serbia elections: Radical Seselj back in parliament". BBC. BBC. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  7. ^ Wodak, Ruth; Mral, Brigitte (2013). Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse. A&C Black. p. 19.
  8. ^ "Populism in the Balkans. The Case of Serbia" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  9. ^ Mootz, Lisa (2010). Nations in Transit 2010: Democratization from Central Europe to Eurasia. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 457. ISBN 9780932088727.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference ksddvvmsde was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "Seselj, Greater Serbia and Hoolbroke's shoes". SENSE Tribunal. 19 August 2005. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  12. ^ "СРС: Србија да буде у ОДКБ - војном савезу који предводи Русија". РТВ. Танјуг. 6 June 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Stojić, Marko (2017). Party Responses to the EU in the Western Balkans: Transformation, Opposition or Defiance?. Springer. p. 92. ISBN 9783319595634.
  15. ^ Ottaway, David (22 October 1993). "PRESIDENT OF SERBIA DISSOLVES PARLIAMENT". Washington Post. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  16. ^ Traynor, Ian (2004). "Hardliner looks set to win poll in Serbia". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  17. ^ Zimonjic, Vesna (1997). "YUGOSLAVIA: Fascism Knocking On Serbia's Door". INTER PRESS SERVICE News Agency. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  18. ^ Bodi, Faisal (2002). "Call this monster by its name". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  19. ^ Mila Dragojević (2016) [2014]. The Politics of Social Ties: Immigrants in an Ethnic Homeland, Routledge, p. 90