Movement of Free Citizens (Serbia)

The Movement of Free Citizens (Serbian: Покрет слободних грађана, ПСГ / Pokret slobodnih građana, PSG) is a liberal political movement in Serbia. It was founded after 2017 presidential elections, by Saša Janković, who ended up second with nearly 17% of the vote.[3] It has no representatives in the National Assembly, since it was founded after the last parliamentary elections in Serbia.

Movement of Free Citizens

Покрет слободних грађана
Pokret slobodnih građana
PresidentPavle Grbović
FounderSaša Janković
Founded21 May 2017 (2017-05-21)
HeadquartersBelgrade
Membership (Feb 2019) 2,500
IdeologyLiberalism[1]
Pro-Europeanism[2]
Atlanticism[2]
Political positionCentre
Colourscyan, white and red
National Assembly
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Assembly of Vojvodina
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City Assembly of Belgrade
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Website
pokretslobodnih.rs

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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[3]

Despite competing against each other in the presidential election, Janković's movement now cooperates closely with the People's Party, a party formed by Vuk Jeremić after the election.[6]

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.[7] Following the accusations, the Movement's Presidency held an emergency meeting, where Janković offered his resignation, a motion denied by the Presidency.[8] 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.[9]

On 17 December Janković resigned.[10] 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.[11] Olenik and most of other high officials left the movement and announced creation of new party, Civic Democratic Forum.[12]

Trifunović supported protests against Vučić. Movement signed Agreement with people along with other opposition parties on 6 February.[13] 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.[14] The first round of inter-party European Parliament-mediated dialogue in Serbia took place two months later.[15]

Presidents of the Movement of Free Citizens

No. President Birth–Death Term start Term end
1 Saša Janković1970–21 May 201717 December 2018
2 Sergej Trifunović1972–26 January 201927 September 2020
3 Pavle Grbović1993–27 September 2020Incumbent

Acting leaders

Electoral results

Parliamentary elections

National Assembly of Serbia
Election Popular vote % of popular vote # of seats Seat change Government
2020 50,765 1.58%
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no seats

Presidential elections

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

See also

References

Notes
Footnotes
  1. Janković was officially the candidate of an unofficial citizens' group. Which, after the election, become a movement.
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