Movement of Free Citizens (Serbia)

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Movement of Free Citizens
Покрет слободних грађана
Pokret slobodnih građana
PresidentPavle Grbović
FounderSaša Janković
Founded21 May 2017 (2017-05-21)
HeadquartersBelgrade
Membership (2019)2,500
Ideology
Political positionCentre
Regional affiliationLiberal South East
European Network[2][3]
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
(Associate)[2][3]
Colourscyan, white and red
National Assembly of Serbia
0 / 250
Assembly of Vojvodina
0 / 120
City Assembly of Belgrade
2 / 110
Website
pokretslobodnih.rs

The Movement of Free Citizens (Serbian: Покрет слободних грађана, romanized: Pokret slobodnih građana; abbr. ПСГ or PSG) is a liberal political organization in Serbia. It was founded after 2017 presidential elections, by Saša Janković, who ended up second with nearly 17% of the vote.[5] It has no representatives in the National Assembly, since it failed to pass thet 3% treshold in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election.

History[]

Saša Janković was in the position of state ombudsman, and as such, he often criticized practices of the government, led by SNS and Vučić. This positioned him among voters as opposition spokesperson and led to him enjoying relatively high ratings in relation to actual opposition leaders and politicians.[6] As his term was about to end, he decided to resign and run in the presidential elections, scheduled for April 2017. His most notable endorsement came from the Democratic Party, which decided to support Janković, rather than to have a candidate of its own.[7] This helped him create a relatively united front against Vučić in the upcoming elections.

In the aftermath of the elections, Janković, who finished second with 16.3% of the vote, decided to form his own political movement, rather than joining the Democratic Party. His movement "Apel 100", formed for the purposes of gathering support from intellectuals and other notable citizens for his presidential candidacy, was thereby transformed into a political organization, the Movement of Free Citizens.[5]

Some of the founders of the Movement are Goran Marković, Zdravko Šotra, Nikola Đuričko, Sergej Trifunović, Srbijanka Turajlić, Borka Pavićević and Vlado Georgiev. Many of the founding members have left the Movement, accusing Janković of running it like his own 'company', and revealed that Janković's wife exerts enormous influence on how the Movement is run.[8] Following the accusations, the Movement's Presidency held an emergency meeting, where Janković offered his resignation, a motion denied by the Presidency.[9] This turmoil within the Movement led political analysts and other opposition leaders and politicians to question the capacity of Janković and the Movement to lead the opposition against Vučić's government.[10]

On 17 December Janković resigned.[11] Candidates for the new president were actor Sergej Trifunović and lawyer Aleksandar Olenik. Elections were held on 26 January 2019, and Trifunović won with 60% of the votes.[12] Olenik and most of other high officials left the movement and announced creation of new party, Civic Democratic Forum.[13]

Trifunović supported protests against Vučić. Movement signed Agreement with people along with other opposition parties on 6 February.[14] After nine months of protests and the unsuccessful conclusion of the negotiation mediated by the University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences and NGOs, on August 2019, Trifunović wrote an open letter to David McAllister, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, asking him to consider facilitating a cross-party dialogue.[15] The first round of inter-party European Parliament-mediated dialogue in Serbia took place two months later.[16]

Presidents of the Movement of Free Citizens[]

No. President Birth–Death Term start Term end
1 Saša Janković Sasa Jankovic Cropped.jpg 1970– 21 May 2017 17 December 2018
2 Sergej Trifunović Sergej Trifunović.png 1972– 26 January 2019 27 September 2020
3 Pavle Grbović Pavle Grbović 2.png 1993– 27 September 2020 Incumbent

Acting presidents[]

Electoral results[]

Parliamentary elections[]

National Assembly of Serbia
Year Leader Popular vote % of popular vote # of seats Seat change Coalition Government
2020 Sergej Trifunović 50,765 1.58%
0 / 250
 Steady 0 no seats
2022 Pavle Grbović
0 / 250
 SSP–NS–DS–PZP

Presidential elections[]

President of Serbia
Year Candidate # 1st round vote % of vote # 2nd round vote % of vote
2017 Saša Janković[nb 1] 2nd 597,728 16.35% N/A — —

See also[]

References[]

Notes
  1. ^ "Otkrivamo: Detalji sastanka opozicije iza zatvorenih vrata" (in Serbian). nova s. 17 September 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Serbia". Europe Elects. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  3. ^ a b c "ALDE leaders comment on Serbian election results". ALDE Party. 24 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b Cvejić, Slobodan; Spasojević, Dušan; Stanojević, Dragan; Todosijević, Bojan (November 2020). "Electoral Compass 2020, analysis of the political landscape in Serbia" (PDF). library.fes.de. Heinrich Böll Foundation.
  5. ^ a b "Osnovan pokret Saše Jankovića".
  6. ^ "Vlast se plaši rejtinga Saše Jankovića".
  7. ^ "Demokratska stranka podržala Sašu Jankovića za predsednika Srbije".
  8. ^ "Škoro: Da sam znao samo pet odsto svega, nikad ne bih ušao u PSG (In Serbian)".
  9. ^ "Janković ponudio ostavku na mesto predsednika PSG, skupština odbila (In Serbian)".
  10. ^ "Janković više nije "pouzdanica" opozicije (In Serbian)".
  11. ^ "Saša Janković se povlači iz aktivnog političkog života i s mesta predsednika PSG". N1. 17 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Sergej Trifunović izabran za predsednika PSG". Danas. 26 January 2019.
  13. ^ "Osnovan Građanski demokratski forum". N1 Srbija (in Serbian). Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  14. ^ "Opozicija u Srbiji dogovorila 'Sporazum sa narodom'". RFE/RL. 6 February 2019.
  15. ^ "Leader of Serbia's opposition party asks for EP's mediation of cross-party talks in a letter to McAllister". European Western Balkans. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  16. ^ "First EP-mediated dialogue in Serbia: Part of the opposition refuses to participate". European Western Balkans. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
Footnotes
  1. ^ Janković was officially the candidate of an unofficial citizens' group. Which, after the election, become a movement.
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