Serbian Progressive Party

Tomislav Nikolić and Aleksandar Vučić at the SNS founding convention on 21 October 2008

The conflict between Tomislav Nikolić and Vojislav Šešelj came to light after Nikolić's statement that the radicals in the National Assembly would support the Stabilisation and Association Process into the European Union, which met the resistance from Šešelj and his loyal supporters.[22]

On September 5, 2008, Nikolić resigned as the head of the parliamentary group and Deputy President of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), and shortly after he founded the parliamentary group called "Forward, Serbia" (Serbian: Напред, Србијо, romanized: Napred, Srbijo).[23] A week later, on the September 12, the SRS leadership loyal to Šešelj expelled Nikolić and nine other supporters from the party and because of it the status of the parliamentary seats of SNS was disputed, because the SRS demanded to take away Nikolić's and his supporter's seats from the parliament.[24]

After Nikolić resigned, he was later joined by the former SRS General Secretary Aleksandar Vučić, and immediately at the beginning of the newly formed parliamentary group they were approached by the Vice President of the National Assembly Božidar Delić. The Serbian Progressive Party was officially founded on October 10 by the 21 former MPs after they were registered as a political party, and the party's founding assembly was held on October 21, 2008.[25] Since the Serbian Progressive Party was formed out as a split from a far-right party, it was labeled in the early days as a right-wing moderate since it retained the national-conservative outlook while adopting new pro-EU policies and balanced relations with Russia and the West.

SNS stand in Novi Sad during the 2012 election

In 2011, the SNS formed a pre-election big tent coalition with the right-wing New Serbia, centrist Strength of Serbia Movement and left-wing Movement of Socialists to participate in the 2012 parliamentary election. During the first quarter of 2011, they organized protests in front of the RTS building demanding to hold elections in late 2011 because of their claim that "the President of Serbia Boris Tadić held a monstrous campaign against Nikolić" and also because of the "worsening system in Serbia that was caused by the Democratic Party".[26][27] During this period, the SNS gained more and more supporters from the voters since "the citizens were unhappy and that the average net salary in Serbia kept decreasing during the period" and many opinion polls even started putting Nikolić in the lead.[28] In early 2012 they officially formed the coalition under the name "Let's Get Serbia Moving" (Serbian: Покренимо Србију, romanized: Pokrenimo Srbiju) after some minor parties joined the coalition.[29] In May 2012, it was reported that SNS already had 340,000 members.[30]

The parliamentary election was held on the 6 May 2012, in which the Serbian Progressive Party participated under its big tent coalition called "Let's Get Serbia Moving". At the press conference, the Deputy President Aleksandar Vučić announced that they won the election with 24.4% of the vote but also claimed that there was voter fraud.[31][32][33] In the end, the coalition ended up getting 24.05% of the popular vote and 73 seats in the parliament while the Serbian Progressive Party gained 55 seats.[34] Soon after the election ended, the Serbian Progressive Party-led coalition formed a coalition government with the Socialist Party of Serbia and the United Regions of Serbia.[35]

The presidential election was held on the 6 May and later again on the 20 May. The first runoff was held on the same day as the parliamentary election but since there was no candidate that won the majority, they ended up calling a second runoff on the 20 May, between the incumbent President Boris Tadić and the Serbian Progressive Party nominee Tomislav Nikolić. On the 20 May, Nikolić defeated Tadić after winning 1,552,063 votes in the second runoff of the election.[36]

Following the presidential election, Nikolić stepped down as the president of the party and resigned from it.[37] The Deputy President Aleksandar Vučić served as the Acting President of the party until the successor was elected.[38] Vučić ended up being the only one who ran for the party leadership, and was elected on the 29 September 2012, with Jorgovanka Tabaković as the Deputy President of the party.[39] Later in the December of the same year, the People's Party led by the former Mayor of Novi Sad, Maja Gojković, merged into the Serbian Progressive Party.[40]

The government was officially formed on 27 July 2012 after a majority vote in the National Assembly and was composed of the SNS-led "Let's Get Serbia Moving" coalition, the SPS-PUPS-JS coalition and United Regions of Serbia. Nikolić appointed the President of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) as his Prime Minister while the Deputy President of the SNS, Aleksandar Vučić, was appointed as the First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia.[41][42][43] One of the main priorities that this government promised was the integration of Serbia into the European Union, normalizing relations with the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo[note 1], fighting against crime and corruption and economic reforms.[44][45] In reality, there were no economic reforms during this period and the government continued practicing the neoliberal economic system, which was implemented by the Democratic Party government in 2008. Initially, the government had 17 ministries and 19 members of the ministries. In September 2013, the government was reshuffled after the United Regions of Serbia moved to the opposition and the government then added one more ministry and three more members.[46][47] This government ended up lasting only for almost two years. In the early 2014, SNS and SPS announced that the government and the parliament will be dissolved because of "insufficient political legitimacy".[48] On the 29 January, President Nikolić formally dissolved the parliament and the next parliamentary election was called to be held on 16 March.[49]

Although the Prime Minister, Ivica Dačić, held the power as the head of the government, many analysts described that Vučić had the most influence in the government because he was the head of the largest party in the governing coalition.[50]

Belgrade Waterfront scale model, exposed in the building of Belgrade Cooperative

The parliamentary election was held on 16 March, in which the Serbian Progressive Party participated under its big tent coalition that they formed back in 2011. This time, the coalition was renamed to "Future We Believe In" (Serbian: Будућност у коју верујемо, romanized: Budućnost u koju verujemo) and two new parties joined the coalition, the Social Democratic Party of Serbia (SDPS) led by Rasim Ljajić and Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) led by Vuk Drašković.[51] Vučić gained more support during this period, especially after jailing the billionaire oligarch Miroslav Mišković.[52] The "Future We Believe In" coalition ended up winning a majority of the seats in a landslide, winning 48.35% of the vote and 158 seats in the National Assembly while the SNS alone won 126 seats, marking the first electoral landslide since the 2000 parliamentary election.[53] Since winning a majority vote, Vučić announced that the will be negotiating with leaders of other parties and Socialist Party of Serbia ended up being the only one that accepted the offer to join their government.[54][55]

On the same day, election was held in Belgrade to elect a new Mayor. The election was supposed to take in late 2013 after Dragan Đilas lost a non-confidence motion in the City Assembly, but the Temporary Council headed by Siniša Mali ended up ruling until the election happened. The SNS-led coalition won the election with 43.62% of the vote and 63 seats in the City Assembly. Mali ended up becoming the mayor officially and served that role until 2018.[56]

The second SNS-led government was formed on 27 April 2014 after a majority vote in the National Assembly and was composed of the SNS-led "Future We Believe In" coalition and the SPS-PUPS-JS coalition.[57] Vučić was elected as the Prime Minister and the government was stable for the most of the time.[58] The new SNS-led government adopted new laws that were needed for the future EU membership, and sought to implement a new agreement on normalizing ties with Kosovo[note 1].[59] Their priorities temporarily shifted when the catastrophic floods hit the country and pushing the economy deeper into recession.[60] In 2015, Serbia was named as a semi-consolidated democracy and was still described under the democratic category.[61] The government's plan was to attract foreign investors and to improve its business and environment, but they failed terribly to complete the large privatizations that were promised by SNS. The government ended up initiating a controversial project called Belgrade Waterfront (Serbian: Београд на води, romanized: Beograd na vodi) in 2014 after an agreement with a private investment and development company called "Eagle Hills". The investment is focused on the creation of new luxury city buildings and malls. The project gained attention after many organizations accused the development of money laundering and corruption,[62][63] lack of good urbanists, architects and economists,[64][65][66][67] and demolition of many houses and buildings and in 2016 even a murder happened, which were organized by unknown personas who were never found.[68][69][70][71] Protests were organized following these controversies which were headed by the "Do not let Belgrade d(r)own" organization.[72] The government sought public support for austerity measures and for an arrangement with the International Monetary Fund. In early January 2016, Vučić called for a snap election because he said that "Serbia still needs four more years of stability to enter the European Union" and in March the parliament was officially dissolved.[73]

The parliamentary election was held on 24 April,[74] initially scheduled for March 2018 until Vučić called for a snap election in early January 2016. SNS participated again under its big tent coalition that has existed since 2011, this time under the name "Serbia Is Winning" (Serbian: Србија побеђује, romanized: Srbija pobeđuje).[75] They were also joined by the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia (PUPS) led by Milan Krkobabić and Serbian People's Party (SNP) led by Nenad Popović. The coalition ended up winning 48.25% of the vote and 131 seats in the National Assembly while SNS alone won 93 seats[76] but this time they ended up winning more votes than on the last parliamentary election. Vučić announced that the government will be formed in June[77] but due to "external pressure" the government was formed in early August, 109 days after the election was held.[78][79] The Socialist Party of Serbia remained as a government member and this time they were also joined by Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians.[80] Non-governmental organizations and all of the opposition parties, except the Serbian Radical Party, accused the ruling party of election theft, and manipulation of votes which the Serbian Progressive Party constantly denied throughout the election.[81][82][83]

Vučić with Putin in 2017

The third SNS-led government was formed on 11 August 2016 after a majority vote in the National Assembly and was composed of the SNS-led "Serbia Is Winning" coalition and the SPS-PUPS-JS coalition, which have been in power since 2012.[84][85] Vučić remained as the Prime Minister and the new government had 16 ministries.[86] During this period, Vučić concentrated power for himself and Serbia has been also experiencing lack of independent media and shift to authoritarianism and because of it it was described as partly-free.[87][88][89] The SNS-led government continued to display intolerance to criticism from opposition parties, independent media and ordinary citizens and independent government bodies such as Ombudsman.

On the 30 May Vučić resigned from the post of the Prime Minister after the presidential election in which he won and Ivica Dačić assumed the trial post which he held until 29 June.[90][91]