The Socialist Party of Serbia (, abbr. SPS) is a social democratic and populist political party in Serbia. Ivica Dačić, the former prime minister of Serbia, has led SPS as its president since 2006.
SPS was founded in 1990 as a merger of the League of Communists of Serbia and Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia with Slobodan Milošević as its first president. In the 1990 general elections, SPS became the ruling party of Serbia while Milošević was elected president of Serbia. During Milošević's rule, SPS relied on the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) from 1992 to 1993 while it later led several coalition governments with SRS, New Democracy, and Yugoslav Left. Mass protests against SPS were held in 1991, and after being accused of falsifying votes in major urban cities, such as Belgrade and Niš, 1996–1997 protests were also organised. The Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition defeated SPS in the 2000 general elections but Milošević declined to accept the results. This resulted in Milošević's overthrow.
SPS was in opposition until 2003 after which it served as confidence and supply to the government led by Vojislav Koštunica until 2007. Dačić led SPS into a coalition government with the Democratic Party after the 2008 parliamentary election, while four years later he became the prime minister of Serbia after the formation of a coalition government with the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). He remained prime minister until 2014, while SPS has since then remained a junior member of SNS-led governments. Although it described itself as a democratic socialist party, SPS promoted mixed economy and populist nationalism under Milošević's leadership and was accused of authoritarianism. SPS has remained populist under Dačić but it shifted towards social democracy and a centre-left and more pragmatic, pro-European image. SPS shares a parliamentary group with the Greens of Serbia in the National Assembly of Serbia, while it has also participated with United Serbia in electoral lists.
History Formation
After the World War II, the Communist Party consolidated power in Yugoslavia. Each constituent republic had its own branch of the party, with Serbia having the Communist Party of Serbia, which was renamed to League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) in 1952. SKS elected Slobodan Milošević as its president in 1986, after an endorsement coming from then-incumbent president of SKS, Ivan Stambolić. Milošević came to power by promising to reduce the autonomy of provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. At a congress that was held in January 1990, rifts between SKS and League of Communists of Slovenia occurred which ultimately led to the dissolution of the federal Communist Party. This also led to the establishment of multi-party systems in the constituent republics.
Milošević organised a congress on 17 July 1990, during which its delegates voted in favour of merging SKS and the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia (SSRNJ) to create the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). Milošević was elected as the party's president. According to political scientist Jerzy Wiatr, the merger "did not substantially change either the organisational structure of the party or its administration", although SPS did gain control of a large amount of infrastructure, including material and financial assets. Milošević as president of the SPS was able to wield considerable power and influence in the government and the public and private sectors, while members of SPS who had shown their independence from loyalty towards Milošević were expelled from the party.
1990–1992: Early years
SPS took part in the general elections which was organised for December 1990. The parliamentary election was conducted in a first-past-the-post system, where members were elected in 250 single-member constituency seats; this system strengthened the position of SPS. This resulted into SPS winning 194 out of 250 seats in the National Assembly, despite only winning 48% of the popular vote. Opposition parties, such as the Democratic Party (DS) and Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), tried to challenge the legitimacy of the election, citing alleged abuse of postal voting and manipulation during vote counting. In the presidential election, Milošević won 65% of the popular vote in the first round of the election. By January 1991, sociologist Laslo Sekelj reported that SPS had 500,000 members. SPS was faced with protests in March 1991, while Milošević was succeeded by Borisav Jović as the president of SPS on 24 May 1991; he held the position until 24 October 1992, when Milošević returned as president of SPS, following the second party congress.
After the break-up of Yugoslavia, Serbia became a part of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. With the opposition boycotting the May 1992 parliamentary election, due to claiming that there were no free and fair electoral conditions, SPS won 49% of the popular vote. Protests were held shortly after the election, after which snap elections were called for December 1992, in which SPS won 33% of the popular vote. Simultaneously with these elections, the 1992 general elections occurred in Serbia as a result of an early elections referendum that was organised in October 1992. The parliamentary election in 1992 was conducted under a proportional representation system, and in it SPS won 101 out of 250 seats in the National Assembly; because of that the SPS minority government had to rely on the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS), which had won 73 seats. In the presidential election however, Milošević won 57% of the popular vote in the first round, while his opponent Milan Panić won 35% of the popular vote.
1993–2000: Leading government party After the announcement that SPS would abandon its hardline position regarding the Bosnian War and Croatian War of Independence in favour of a compromise and after a dispute regarding the rebalancing of the federal budget in July 1993, the coalition between SPS and SRS was disintegrated. SRS then unsuccessfully called a motion of no confidence against SPS in September 1993, though Milošević ended up dissolving the National Assembly to call a snap parliamentary election for December 1993. In the parliamentary election, SPS won 123 seats, though still short 3 seats of a majority, Milošević then persuaded the New Democracy (ND), which as part of the SPO-led Democratic Movement of Serbia coalition won 5 seats, to enter a coalition government with SPS. ND accepted this and the new government headed by Mirko Marjanović was sworn in March 1994.
SPS soon formed the Left Coalition with ND and the Yugoslav Left (JUL), a far-left political party headed by Milošević's wife Mirjana Marković, to contest the parliamentary elections for the federal parliament in November 1996. The Left Coalition emerged with 64 out of 108 seats in the election. SPS was accused of falsifying votes in cities such as Belgrade and Niš in the 1996 local elections. The Electoral Commission also invalidated the results. This led to mass protests that were organised up until February 1997, when SPS ultimately accepted the defeat. Milošević, who was constitutionally limited to two terms as president of Serbia, was elected president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in July 1997, shortly before the general elections in Serbia. SPS took part with ND and JUL under the Left Coalition banner and won 110 seats in the National Assembly. ND declined to join the government and the coalition was subsequently disintegrated after SPS and JUL formed a government with SRS. In the presidential election, SPS nominated Zoran Lilić, although the election ended up being annulled as the election's turnout was less than 50%. This led to another presidential election which was held in December 1997; Milan Milutinović, the SPS-nominated candidate, won in the second round of the election.
The new SPS-led government was faced with the Kosovo War which ended up making a major impact on SPS. SPO joined the SPS-led federal government in January 1999. Vuk Drašković, the leader of SPO, supported the proposed Rambouillet Agreement, though Milošević declined to sign it, which ultimately led to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Additionally, SPS and SPO entered into a conflict after the assassination of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija, which led to dismissal of SPO from the federal government. In the same year, Milošević proposed constitutional changes to the federal parliament to allow him to run for another term in the 2000 election; the amendments were passed by the parliament. Otpor, a student resistance movement formed in October 1998, and the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a wide alliance of opposition parties formed in January 2000, called for early elections, though the elections ended up being organised for September 2000. Milošević faced Vojislav Koštunica, the DOS-nominated candidate, in the presidential election. The Federal Election Committee reported that Milošević placed second although that Koštunica also won less than 50% of the popular vote. Milošević declined to accept the results, which resulted into DOS-organised mass protests that culminated into the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević. Milošević accepted defeat on 5 October 2000, while the Federal Election Committee published actual results on 7 October. Shortly after the elections, SPS, SPO, and DOS agreed to organise a snap parliamentary election in Serbia in December 2000. This parliamentary election, and all subsequent ones, were conducted in a proportional electoral system with only one electoral unit. SPS suffered defeat and only won 37 out of 250 seats in the National Assembly, which put the party in opposition for the first time since its formation in 1990. Following the 2000 elections, Milorad Vučelić formed the Democratic Socialist Party while Zoran Lilić also left and formed the Serbian Social Democratic Party.
2001–2008: Opposition and support for Koštunica's government
Milošević, who was still the president of SPS, was arrested in March 2001 on suspicion of corruption and abuse of power, and was shortly after extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to stand trial for war crimes instead. At the presidential election in September 2002, SPS nominated actor Bata Živojinović; he placed sixth. This election ended up being annulled as the turnout in the second round was less than 50%. This resulted into another presidential election which was held in December 2002; SPS supported Vojislav Šešelj, the leader of SRS. He placed second in the presidential election, which ended up being annulled again as the turnout was less than 50%. At a party congress in January 2003, Ivica Dačić, a reformist within SPS, was elected president of the party's main board. It was reported that Milošević subsequently demanded his exclusion of the party, although Dačić denied this. Another presidential election was held in November 2003 which SPS ended up boycotting. A month later, SPS took part in a snap parliamentary election in which it won 22 seats; the drop in popularity occurred due to their voters shifting towards SRS. SPS ended up serving as confidence and supply to Koštunica's government in the National Assembly. In 2004, the 50% turnout rule for presidential elections was abolished, after which SPS nominated Dačić as their presidential candidate for the 2004 presidential election; he placed fifth.