United Opposition of Serbia

The United Opposition of Serbia (Serbian: Удружена Опозиција Србије, romanized: Udružena Opozicija Srbije) is a big tent opposition coalition in Serbia, founded in 2020 as a successor of the Alliance for Serbia.[1]

United Opposition of Serbia Удружена опозиција Србије Udružena opozicija Srbije
Leader	Collective leadership
Founded	August 10, 2020
Preceded by	Alliance for Serbia
Headquarters	Belgrade
Ideology	Catch-all coalition Anti-Vucic
National Assembly	0 / 250
Vojvodina Assembly	0 / 120
Belgrade Assembly	18 / 110
Politics of Serbia Political parties Elections

History

By mid-2020, members from the Alliance for Serbia (Serbian: Савез за Србију, romanized: Savez za Srbiju, SzS) publicly said that they aren't satisfied with how the coalition is functioning, and by that, it became clear that the organization needs to be restructured.

In August, the nationalist right-wing to far-right Dveri party opted not to join the new coalition, all other former SzS members decided to join the coalition.

United Opposition of Serbia was eventually founded in August 2020 as a successor of the Alliance for Serbia, which boycotted the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election. Other Serbian opposition political parties such as Healthy Serbia, Together for Serbia, Party of Modern Serbia, Social Democratic Party, New Party, Movement of Free Citizens, Enough is Enough and the Democratic Party of Serbia aren't eligible to join the new coalition because they didn't boycott elections.[2]

Members

There are 12 founding members of United Opposition, including Đorđe Vukadinović, a non-partisan individual.

Name		Leader	Main ideology	Political position
	Party of Freedom and Justice Странка слободе и правде Stranka slobode i pravde	Dragan Đilas	Pro-Europeanism Social democracy	Centre-left
	People's Party Народна странка Narodna stranka	Vuk Jeremić	Pro-Europeanism Civic nationalism	Centre-right
	Democratic Party Демократска странка Demokratska stranka	Zoran Lutovac	Pro-Europeanism Social liberalism	Centre to centre-left
	Movement for Reversal Покрет за преокрет Pokret za preokret	Janko Veselinović	Social democracy Social liberalism	Centre-left
	United Trade Unions of Serbia "Sloga" Удружени синдикати Србије „Слога” Udruženi sindikati Srbije „Sloga”	Željko Veselinović	Labour rights Democratic socialism	Left-wing
	Fatherland Отаџбина Otadžbina	Slaviša Ristić	Christian democracy National conservatism	Right-wing
	Statehood Movement of Serbia Државотворни покрет Србије Državotvorni pokret Srbije	Slobodan Samardžić	National conservatism Right-wing populism	Right-wing
	Civic Platform Грађанска платформа Građanska platforma	Jovan Jovanović	Pro-Europeanism Social democracy	Centre-left
	Movement Free Serbia Покрет слободна Србија Pokret slobodna Srbija	Lidija Martinović	Pro-Europeanism Social democracy	Centre-left
	Šumadija Region Шумадијска регија Šumadijska regija	Ana Santrač	Regionalism Pro-Europeanism	Centre-left
	Democratic Community of Vojvodina Hungarians Демократска заједница војвођанских Мађара Vajdasági Magyar Demokrata Párt	Áron Csonka	Hungarian minority interests Regionalism	Centre-left

Current state of affairs

As of December 2020, United Opposition of Serbia is all but dissolved, mostly due to substantial disagreements between the two main party leaders, Dragan Đilas and Vuk Jeremić. The main point of dissent is the question on whether the coalition should maintain its hard line course towards those opposition parties that took part at the June election, or opt for a compromise. On December 16th, Party of Freedom and Justice and Democratic Party conjoined their forces with Movement of Free Citizens to create a common platform for political negotiations with government that should be mediated by European Parliament.[3] People's Party considered that unacceptable, since Movement of Free Citizens not only took part at the elections (and thus left the boycott block), but also collected the signatures needed for participation under unclear circumstances.[4][5] On December 19th, vice-president of the People's Party, Zdravko Ponoš admitted that United Opposition of Serbia is "blocked", but shifted responsibility for further activities of the coallition to Đilas.[6]

See also

• Alliance for Serbia, the predecessor of this political alliance.

References

1. Udružena opozicija Srbije – početak ne obećava, Deutsche Welle (in Serbian). Retrieved 2020-08-12.
2. "Formirana Udružena opozicija, cilj - smena režima i izgradnja slobodnog društva". N1 Srbija (in Serbian). Retrieved 2020-08-10.
3. Danas: "SSP, DS i PSG pripremaju zajedničku platformu za dijalog o izbornim uslovima"
4. Fonet: UOPS više ne postoji
5. N1: Stojanović o overavanju potpisa
6. Danas: "Zdravko Ponoš — Udružena opozicija je trenutno u blokadi"