Movement of Free Citizens (Serbia)

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Movement of Free Citizens
Покрет слободних грађана
Pokret slobodnih građana
AbbreviationPSG
PresidentPavle Grbović
FounderSaša Janković
Founded21 May 2017 (2017-05-21)
HeadquartersKosovska 8, Belgrade
Youth wingPSG Youth
Ideology
Political positionCentre
National affiliation
Regional affiliationLiberal South East European Network
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliationLiberal International
Colours  Cyan
National Assembly of Serbia
3 / 250
Assembly of Vojvodina
2 / 120
City Assembly of Belgrade
3 / 110
Website
pokretslobodnih.rs

The Movement of Free Citizens (Serbian Cyrillic: Покрет слободних грађана, romanized: Pokret slobodnih građana, abbr. PSG) is a liberal political party in Serbia.

History[edit]

Saša Janković was in the position of state ombudsman,[when?] and as such, he often criticised 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.[1] 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.[2] This helped him create a relatively united front against Vučić in the upcoming elections.

In the elections,[when?] Janković finished second with 16.3% of the vote and 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 thus transformed into a political organisation, the Movement of Free Citizens.[3]

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 left the Movement by November 2017, accusing Janković of running it like his own 'company', and revealed that Janković's wife exerts enormous influence on how the Movement is run.[4] Following the accusations, the Movement's Presidency held an emergency meeting, where Janković offered his resignation, a motion denied by the Presidency.[5] 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.[6]

On 17 December 2018 Janković resigned.[7] 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.[8] Olenik and most of other high officials left the movement and announced creation of new party, Civic Democratic Forum.[9]

Trifunović supported protests against Vučić. Movement signed Agreement with people along with other opposition parties on 6 February.[10] After nine months of protests and the unsuccessful conclusion of the negotiation mediated by the University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences and NGOs, in 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.[11] The first round of inter-party European Parliament-mediated dialogue in Serbia took place two months later.[12]

The PSG's candidates in the 2023 Serbian parliamentary election carried formal endorsements from the Civic Democratic Party (GDP). In early 2024, the Civic Democratic Party permitted the Movement of Free Citizens to take over its party registration, and the PSG for the first time became an officially registered party.[13]

Political positions[edit]

It is a liberal political organisation,[14][15][16][17] and it encompasses both social liberalism,[18][19][20] and economic liberalism.[21] It is also supportive of accession of Serbia to the European Union.[21] It is a member of the Liberal South East European Network and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.[22][23][24]

Presidents of the Movement of Free Citizens[edit]

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

Acting presidents[edit]

Electoral performance[edit]

Parliamentary elections[edit]

National Assembly of Serbia
Year Leader Popular vote % of popular vote # # of seats Seat change Coalition Status
2020 Sergej Trifunović 50,765 1.58% Increase 9th
0 / 250
 Steady 0 – Extra-parliamentary
2022 Pavle Grbović 520,469 14.09% Increase 2nd
3 / 250
 Increase 3 UZPS Opposition
2023 902,450 24.32% Steady 2nd
3 / 250
 Steady 0 SPN TBA

Presidential elections[edit]

President of Serbia
Year Candidate 1st round popular vote % of popular vote 2nd round popular vote % of popular vote Notes
2022 Zdravko Ponoš 2nd 698,538 18.84% — — — Supported Ponoš

Provincial elections[edit]

Assembly of Vojvodina
Year Leader Popular vote % of popular vote # # of seats Seat change Coalition Status
2020 Sergej Trifunović Election boycott
0 / 120
 Steady 0 – Extra-parliamentary
2023 Pavle Grbović To be decided SPN TBA

Belgrade City Assembly elections[edit]

City Assembly of Belgrade
Year Leader Popular vote % of popular vote # # of seats Seat change Coalition Status
2018 Saša Janković 157,147 18.93% Increase 2nd
8 / 110
 Increase 8 Dragan Đilas list Opposition
2022 Pavle Grbović 195,335 21.78% Steady 2nd
3 / 110
 Decrease 5 UZPS Opposition
2023 To be decided SPN TBA

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Vlast se plaši rejtinga Saše Jankovića". 24 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Demokratska stranka podržala Sašu Jankovića za predsednika Srbije". October 2017.
  3. ^ "Osnovan pokret Saše Jankovića". Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  4. ^ "Škoro: Da sam znao samo pet odsto svega, nikad ne bih ušao u PSG" (in Serbian). 27 November 2017.
  5. ^ "Janković ponudio ostavku na mesto predsednika PSG, skupština odbila (In Serbian)". 25 November 2017.
  6. ^ "Janković više nije "pouzdanica" opozicije (In Serbian)".
  7. ^ "Saša Janković se povlači iz aktivnog političkog života i s mesta predsednika PSG". N1. 17 December 2018. Archived from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  8. ^ "Sergej Trifunović izabran za predsednika PSG". Danas. 26 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Osnovan Građanski demokratski forum". N1 Srbija (in Serbian (Latin script)). Archived from the original on 25 February 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  10. ^ "Opozicija u Srbiji dogovorila 'Sporazum sa narodom'". RFE/RL. 6 February 2019.
  11. ^ "Leader of Serbia's opposition party asks for EP's mediation of cross-party talks in a letter to McAllister". European Western Balkans. 26 August 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  12. ^ "First EP-mediated dialogue in Serbia: Part of the opposition refuses to participate". European Western Balkans. 11 October 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  13. ^ See ИЗВОД ИЗ РЕГИСТРА ПОЛИТИЧКИХ СТРАНАКА, Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Government of Serbia, 11 October 2023, p. 14, accessed 8 April 2023; and ИЗВОД ИЗ РЕГИСТРА ПОЛИТИЧКИХ СТРАНАКА, Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Government of Serbia, 28 March 2024, p. 14.
  14. ^ Milovančević, Vojislav (17 September 2020). "Otkrivamo: Detalji sastanka opozicije iza zatvorenih vrata". NOVA portal (in Serbian). Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  15. ^ "Serbia | Center for Strategic and International Studies". www.csis.org. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  16. ^ Beckmann-Dierkes, Norbert; Rankić, Slađan (13 May 2022). "Parlamentswahlen in Serbien 2022". Konrad Adenauer Foundation (in German). p. 2. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  17. ^ Mirosavljević, Igor (2 December 2023). "Evolution of the party scene since 2012: Who are the members of the "Serbia Against Violence" coalition?". European Western Balkans. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  18. ^ Tintor, Vladimir (9 July 2020). "Fallout from anti-lockdown protests". www.euractiv.com. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  19. ^ "Serbia ahead of June 21 parliamentary elections". seenews.com. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  20. ^ Hungary, About (15 April 2019). "Serbian President apologizes to ethnic Hungarians". Serbian President apologizes to ethnic Hungarians. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ "Serbia". Europe Elects. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  23. ^ "ALDE leaders comment on Serbian election results". ALDE Party. 24 June 2020.
  24. ^ "Pokret slobodnih građana punopravni član Saveza liberala i demokrata za Evropu". N1 (in Serbian). 3 December 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
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