Democratic Party (Serbia)
The Democratic Party is a social democratic political party in Serbia. Srđan Milivojević has led the party as its president since 2024. The party is colloquially known as the žuti because of one of its main colours.
DS was founded in 1990 by a group of intellectuals who sought to revive the Democratic Party, which was active in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Dragoljub Mićunović was the first president of DS until 1994 and under his leadership DS gained representation in the National Assembly of Serbia and took part in anti-government protests against Slobodan Milošević. After Zoran Đinđić's election as president of DS in 1994, DS was reorganised. Đinđić led the party into the Together coalition, and DS took part in the 1996–1997 protests that occurred after the Electoral Commission invalidated local election results in cities in which the Together coalition had won. DS later led the, which became part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia in January 2000. DOS won the 2000 Yugoslav general election, but Milošević, the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, declined to accept the results, culminating in his overthrow.
DS assumed power in Serbia after winning parliamentary elections in December 2000 and Đinđić then became prime minister. Đinđić was assassinated in March 2003 and succeeded by Boris Tadić as president of DS. Tadić also became president of Serbia while DS was in opposition from 2004 to 2007, when it became part of a coalition government led by DSS. Tadić led DS to victory in 2008 when a coalition government with SPS was formalised. DS was defeated by the Serbian Progressive Party in 2012 and went into opposition. Dragan Đilas became the president of DS in December 2012; he was ousted as mayor of Belgrade in 2013 but survived an internal motion of no confidence in January 2014. He was succeeded by Bojan Pajtić in May 2014. Dragan Šutanovac became the president of DS after Pajtić's resignation in 2016. Šutanovac was then succeeded by Zoran Lutovac in 2018. Lutovac led DS into several opposition coalitions and boycotted the 2020 parliamentary election, causing a schism in the party. He successfully led DS back into the National Assembly in the 2022 election. Milivojević succeeded him as leader in late 2024.
DS was a catch-all party in its early years, occupying the centrist and centre-right position. It supported the establishment of a market economy, denationalisation, and union rights. DS shifted to a centrist and socially liberal profile under Tadić and became the leading party of the pro-European bloc of Serbian politics. It shifted towards social democracy in 2013, and is now positioned on the centre-left on the political spectrum. Its supporters tend to be female, high school or university educated, tolerant towards diversity, socially progressive, and opposed to authoritarianism and nationalism. DS is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists and a member of the Progressive Alliance and Socialist International.
History
Formation
On 11 December 1989, a group of intellectualsincluding anti-communist dissidents, liberal academics, poets, writers, and film and theatre directorsheld a press conference announcing the revival of the Democratic Party, at which they also released a written proclamation. DS had existed in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia until 1945, when the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, later known as League of Communists of Yugoslavia, came to power; as such, DS claims that it was "re-founded", instead of categorising itself as a new political party. The original thirteen signatories of the proclamation of the Founding Committee included Kosta Čavoški, Milovan Danojlić, Zoran Đinđić, Gojko Đogo, Vladimir Gligorov, Slobodan Inić, Marko Janković, Vojislav Koštunica, Dragoljub Mićunović, Borislav Pekić, Miodrag Perišić, Radoslav Stojanović, and Dušan Vukajlović. Their programmatic proclamation, named Letter of Intents, attracted even more intellectuals who eventually joined DS.In 1989, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was still a one-party state; DS thus became the first opposition, non-communist party in Yugoslavia. With the disintegration of the SKJ that began in January 1990, its constituent republics, later including Serbia in July 1990, adopted multi-party systems. DS organised its founding assembly on 3 February 1990 at the Belgrade Youth Center. The first presidency of the DS was contested between Čavoški and Mićunović, with the latter ultimately winning the position. Ideological differences between the two existed; Čavoški wanted the party to adopt a more nationalist and anti-communist rhetoric, while Mićunović was viewed as a liberal. Although Čavoški lost in the leadership election, he was elected president of the party's executive board; Pekić became the deputy president of the DS.
According to Mićunović, Čavoški initially registered the party in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in March 1990 because Serbia had not yet adopted a law authorising a multi-party system. DS was later registered in Serbia on 27 July 1990.
1990–1993: the Mićunović years
After its establishment, the DS began publishing its newspaper, Demokratija, and it also established the Democratic Youth, its youth wing. Gligorov and Inić, who worked on the economic programme of the party, left DS also shortly after its formation due to ideological disagreements. At its second assembly in September 1990, Mićunović was re-elected president of DS while Koštunica and were elected vice-presidents. A month later, DS announced that it would take part in the 1990 Serbian parliamentary election. This decision was opposed by Čavoški and Nikola Milošević, who advocated for an election boycott instead. Čavoški previously proposed that opposition parties should receive television air time, representation on electoral bodies, and for the campaign to last 90 days in total. Čavoški and Milošević left DS shortly before the December 1990 election, claiming that fair electoral conditions had not been created. They then formed the Serbian Liberal Party in January 1991. Đinđić succeeded Čavoški as the president of the party's executive board. Despite winning 7% of the popular vote in the 1990 election, DS only won 7 seats in the National Assembly due to Serbia's new first-past-the-post electoral system, which favoured the Socialist Party of Serbia, the then-ruling and largest party of Serbia.Together with the Serbian Renewal Movement, DS organised mass protests in Belgrade in March 1991, demanding reforms of the Radio Television of Serbia. As a result of the protests, SPO leader Vuk Drašković was briefly imprisoned but later let go, and the RTS director resigned. After the break-up of Yugoslavia in early 1992, Serbia became a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. DS boycotted the May 1992 federal parliamentary elections and declined to accept the results, claiming that free and fair conditions had not been created for the election. Instead of campaigning, DS preferred to organise anti-government protests to force the government to call new fair elections. In June 1992, DS decided not to join the Democratic Movement of Serbia coalition that had been created a month earlier. Koštunica led the "DS for DEPOS" faction that was in favour of joining DEPOS. He left the party after DS decided not to join the coalition, claiming that Mićunović and Đinđić were in a "secret alliance" with SPS. After leaving DS, he partnered with Mirko Petrović, Draško Petrović, and Vladan Batić and formed the Democratic Party of Serbia.
After the mass protests, another federal parliamentary election was organised for December 1992. DS decided to take part in this election and it won 6% of the popular vote and 5 seats in the Federal Assembly. DS then joined the government led by Milan Panić, the then-incumbent prime minister of FR Yugoslavia. Simultaneously, in December 1992, general elections were organised in Serbia as a result of an October 1992 early elections referendum. Although DS opposed the referendum, it participated in the election, winning 6 seats. In the presidential election, DS supported Panić, who placed second behind Slobodan Milošević, the leader of SPS and president of Serbia.
In 1993, Đinđić asserted himself in the party and led its operations going into the 1993 parliamentary election. Milošević ended his coalition with the Serbian Radical Party in mid-1993 and turned towards DS for negotiations instead. Mićunović claimed that there was a meeting between Milošević and DS, although Zoran Živković has denied that claim. Đinđić invited several entrepreneurs to join DS during this period, which resulted in DS being dubbed the "yellow company" from its opponents. Yellow was both an official colour of DS and the colour of Centromarket, a company owned by Slobodan Radulović, one of the entrepreneurs invited to join the party. Shortly before the 1993 election, DS agreed that Đinđić should be their ballot representative. He led DS under the "Honestly" banner and visited over 100 locations in Serbia during the campaign period. Đinđić also said that he would retire from politics if DS won less than 20 seats. The campaign was successful: DS won 29 seats in the National Assembly. DS remained in opposition after the election as Đinđić was unable to bring DS into the SPS-led government.
1994–2000: the Đinđić years
At a party congress on 25 January 1994, Đinđić was elected president, and Perišić and Miroljub Labus were elected vice-presidents of the party. Mićunović and Vida Ognjenović also resigned from their positions in DS during the congress. Đinđić commented that "Mićunović's time has passed... Mićunović is no Tina Turner who sounds better now than when she was 30". By contrast, Mićunović characterised the manner of Đinđić's takeover of DS as a "combination of Machiavellianism and a revolutionary technique". During this period, Đinđić also benefited from discreet support in the Milošević-controlled state-run media. After Đinđić became the president of DS, the party was reorganised and moved away from Mićunović's "intellectualistic" approach. In 1995, DS rejected Slobodan Gavrilović's proposal to reunite with DSS, while later that year, Mićunović left DS and then formed the Democratic Centre in 1996.In September 1996, DS formed the Together coalition with SPO and the Civic Alliance of Serbia to take part in the federal parliamentary election and local elections, which were organised for November 1996. DSS also took part in the coalition, although only at the federal level. Together won 23% of the popular vote in the federal parliamentary elections; it also won local elections in key cities such as Belgrade, Niš, and Novi Sad. However, the Electoral Commission invalidated those local election results, which ultimately led to mass protests that were attended by hundreds of thousands of people in total. The aftermath of the protests resulted in Đinđić and Živković becoming mayors of Belgrade and Niš respectively, after the Electoral Commission recognised the results. In September 1997, Đinđić was removed from office after losing a motion of no confidence staged by SPO.
The Together coalition was dissolved shortly before the 1997 general elections. DS, DSS, and GSS opted to boycott the election, while SPO did not because the government partially accepted their demands. Čedomir Jovanović and Čedomir Antić, who led the Student Political Club during the 1996–1997 protests, joined DS in 1998. In the same year, DS became part of the, a moderate opposition coalition. This coalition later became part of a wider alliance, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia that was formed in January 2000.
Đinđić faced Slobodan Vuksanović at a party congress in February 2000, with Đinđić ultimately retaining the position of party president. Živković and Gavrilović remained vice-presidents of DS and were joined by Predrag Filipov and Boris Tadić. Vuksanović left DS in October 2000 and formed the People's Democratic Party in 2001. Milošević, now president of FR Yugoslavia, amended the federal constitution to provide for direct, rather than indirect, elections in the 2000 general elections. DOS nominated Koštunica as their presidential candidate, who faced Milošević in the presidential election which he won in the first round. However, Milošević declined to accept the results, and the Electoral Commission reported that Koštunica had not won more than 50% of the votes in the first round and that a second round would be scheduled instead. This culminated in mass protests which led to the overthrow of Milošević on 5 October 2000. The Electoral Commission published the actual results two days later, confirming that Koštunica had won in the first round. Together with SPS and SPO, DOS agreed to organise a snap parliamentary election in December 2000 in which DOS won 176 out of 250 seats in the National Assembly.