The campaign for the Belgrade elections, which Ana Brnabić, the President of the National Assembly, announced on April 3 for June 2, is formally underway, but it’s as if it doesn’t exist, because it’s not even known yet who will participate in the election race, so not even everyone from the opposition will boycott the race.
Pending further political decisions, as well as the fact that the local elections in another 88 local self-government units, outside of the parties of the ruling coalition, will be “merged” together with the Belgrade one, for now only a small number of participants have officially announced that they are campaigning for the Belgrade Assembly.
Out of the parties outside the two main opposition groups, both parties announced their participation in the Belgrade elections, which were formed by the collapse of the “We – Voice of the People” list, namely the eponymous movement led by Branko Pavlović and “We – Strength of the People” led by Branimir Nestorović.
Nestorović announced his participation only in the elections in Belgrade, while the rest of the local elections will be boycotted. Nestorović’s candidate for mayor of Belgrade is Borislav Antonijević.
Vladimir Gajić’s People’s Party has also announced its participation in the Belgrade elections. Previously, she made an agreement on a coalition with the DJB of Saša Radulović, however, the DJB recently explained that an agreement on a joint appearance in the elections with the People’s Party was not reached. because a coalition with Velimir Ilić’s New Serbia is unacceptable for DJB.
The group of citizens “1 out of 5 million – Belgrade Front” is announced a joint performance in the Belgrade elections on June 2 on a list that will be called “Rhythm of the City”. The first candidate on the list and candidate for mayor of this coalition will be lawyer Dušan Teodosijević, as they announced.
Participation in the Belgrade elections he also announced the movement “Gala, this is for you!”.
It is not excluded that the Start to Change movement, whose candidate for mayor would be Savo Manojlović, could submit a list in the Belgrade elections, but for now there is no confirmation of that possibility. Manojlović recently stated that he will not bid on it, if they make such a decision, he will announce it.
The only opposition party that has so far submitted a list for the Belgrade elections is the Russian Party under the name “Russian Party – Serbs and Russians brothers forever!”.
To participate in the Belgrade elections, it is necessary to submit 3,000 certified signatures of citizens. 110 councilors are elected for the City Assembly, which then elects the mayor.
The governing parties submitted a joint electoral list, a coalition of 14 entities, under the name “Belgrade tomorrow”!
Needed to win by “their rules of the game”
Part of the coalition Serbia against violence saw the merging of the Belgrade and local elections on June 2 as a concession by the government and an opportunity for the opposition to persevere in the fight for Belgrade, so the People’s Movement of Serbia (NPS), the Ecological Uprising, the Green-Left Front (ZLF), the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG), New Face of Serbia and the Democratic Party (DS) decided to participate in the Belgrade elections under the slogan “I choose Struggle!”.
NPS President Miroslav Aleksić assessed that going to the elections was the right move because “it’s about small and tiny steps that should lead to the final goal” and added that only struggle leads to results.
The ecological uprising also decided to go to the elections, and the president of that movement, Aleksandar Jovanović Ćuta, called on all opposition parties to adopt a unified position and go to them.
One of the opposition parties that hinted even before the official decision that participating in the Belgrade elections would be the right choice was the Green-Left Front. Dobrica Veselinović from the ZLF, let’s remind you, he was the holder of the list of the SPN coalition, in the Belgrade elections in December 2023, but it is not yet known whether he will be the mayoral candidate of this party.
Pavlo Grbović’s movement of free citizens also believed that elections should be held before the official decision.
The president of the New Face of Serbia, Miloš Parandilović, is of the opinion that the boycott of the elections is “irresponsible and selfish”, that the election conditions will never be substantially improved and that the opposition therefore “must win according to their rules of the game”.
Initially, the Democratic Party was of the opinion not to go to the elections, but after voting within the SPN, it decided to side with the majority and take part in the Belgrade elections. However, the president of the DS, Zoran Lutovac, said on Monday that this decision is only conditional and that he will withdraw his decision if “the voter list issue is not resolved”, because in that case there will be no free and fair elections. If changes do not occur, Lutovac said that he will invite “colleagues and citizens to withdraw from the election process”.
One should not participate in a “pre-directed performance”
Among the parties that will boycott the elections in Belgrade are the Freedom and Justice Party (SSP), Serbia Center (Srce), Zajedno, the New Democratic Party of Serbia (Novi DSS), the Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia (POKS) and the Zajedno party.
The president of the Srce party, Zdravko Ponoš, said on the occasion of the boycott that the decision not to participate in the elections would contribute to the overthrow of the SNS from power. As he stated, if the decision to boycott and postponing the elections to the fall had remained the same, the elections would have taken place in much better circumstances, so in addition to Belgrade, another city or municipality could have been won.
SSP President Dragan Đilas explained his party’s position not to participate in the elections in Belgrade said that they are not fighting “for power in Vračar”, but for “changes in this country”.
Also, Đilas stated that the decision to participate in the municipal elections in Belgrade was left to the local committees of that party, but that all 17 committees decided not to participate.
The Zajedno party also decided to boycott for similar reasons as their coalition partners. As stated by the co-president of that party, Biljana Stojković, they do not want to participate “in a pre-directed performance”.
However, the Belgrade committee of this party is of the opinion that it is necessary to go to the Belgrade elections and that “boycott and passivization” are not the solution, said the president of that committee, Đorđe Miketić. Because of this, the entire Belgrade committee of the Zajedno party resigned from that party and decided to run for elections.
Already after the first meeting with representatives of the authorities on improving election conditions, the NADA coalition stopped visiting them and expressed a clear position that it will not participate in the elections if the demands of the opposition are not met.
Stating the reasons for the boycott, the vice-president of that party, Predrag Marsenić stated is that “there is still a migration of phantom voters to Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad and that the government did not fulfill the first two points from the conversation.”
The coalition partner of the New DSS, the POKS party, will also boycott the elections because they believe that “technically and legally the legitimate demands of the opposition for minimum conditions for free, fair and democratic elections cannot be met” by June 2nd.
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