Serb List (Kosovo)
The Serb List is a Serb minority political party in Kosovo. It was the dominant Serb party in Kosovo politics, claiming all ten of the Assembly seats reserved for the community, from 2014 until all its members resigned and withdrew in 2022. The party retains close links to the Government of Serbia, led by the Serbian Progressive Party and President Aleksandar Vučić.
History
On 19 April 2013, the Brussels Agreement was signed, and by the autumn of the same year the initial political association was formed, originally called the Citizen Initiative Serbia, but that initial name had to be changed into: Citizen Initiative Srpska, upon formal request of the Central Election Commission of Kosovo in order to be officially registered for the 2013 local elections in Kosovo, that were held on 3 November 2013. It had candidates in various municipalities, mainly those inhabited by Serbs, and won the majority of Serbian votes.The combined number of votes for the Serb List was 38,169 at the 2014 Kosovan parliamentary election. On 17 September 2014, the Serb List announced that they would join the government cabinet only if Vetëvendosje was not part of it. Aleksandar Jablanović, the Minister for Returns and Communities in the Government of Kosovo, was dismissed on 3 February 2015, after the opposition demanded his dismissal after he called the group of ethnic Albanians who attacked Serb IDPs in Gjakova with stones on Christmas Eve "savages". His statement contributed to the 2015 Kosovo protests. The Serb List decided not to attend the next Kosovo assembly session.
Following Jablanović's resignation from the party, a splinter party by the name of the Party of Kosovo Serbs was founded on 6 April 2017 and registered on 15 May 2017. In June 2017, attacks and conflicts between the two parties became frequent.
Following the 2017 Kosovan parliamentary election, the Serb List agreed to form the Government of Kosovo led by Ramush Haradinaj of Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, allegedly under main condition that the Community of Serb Municipalities be established.
On 24 September 2023, the party's vice-president Milan Radoičić led an attack against the Kosovo Police in Banjska, which resulted in one policeman and three militants of Radoičić's group getting killed. On 29 September, Radoičić resigned from the party after admitting that he had organized the attack. The attack has been classified as a terrorist attack by the EU. On 24 October 2023, Zlatan Elek was appointed president of the party.
On 5 December 2024, the party's nine MPs were expelled from the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo for repeated provocations and prolonged absences from the chamber. On 23 December, the Central Election Commission of Kosovo declined to certify the party, citing its refusal to recognise Kosovo as an independent state and its ties to the Serbian government. This prevents the Serb List from standing in the 2025 Kosovan parliamentary election. The party said it would appeal the decision, calling it “institutional and political violence” against the Serb minority. On 25 December 2024, the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel accepted the Serb List's appeal against the Central Election Commission of Kosovo decision to deny their certification for participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Kosovo. ECAP instructed the Central Election Commission to certify the Serb List for the election.