People's Party (Serbia, 2017)

After his unsuccessful bid in an attempt to replace Ban Ki-Moon as UN Secretary-General in the end of 2016, Vuk Jeremić returned to Serbia, where he enjoyed relatively high approval ratings compared to other opposition politicians. He decided to run for president in 2017 presidential election, declining the option to support Saša Janković, who by then managed to gather a number of parties' support. Although many thought that opposition would have better chances against Vučić if united and considered Janković a better option for a single opposition presidential candidate,[1] Jeremić announced his candidacy nevertheless.[2] He finished fourth, with little less than 6% of the vote.

In the aftermath of the election though his results were quite disappointing, he announced he will form a party. He gathered support for such move mainly from conservative intellectuals who were opposing Vučić's government and were previously tied with DSS (most notably Sanda Rašković-Ivić, a former DSS president). He formed the People's Party in October 2017. The People's Party was able to forgo the usual registration process for new parties when Miroslav Aleksić, a member of the National Assembly, allowed his People's Movement of Serbia to be re-registered and re-constituted under the new party name. Representatives of the People's Party indicated that this removed the threat of the name being stolen during the registration process.[3]

As of December 2017, there are three members of the People's Party serving in the National Assembly, although they do not serve as a unified parliamentary bloc. Aleksić, who was selected as first vice-president of the People's Party at its founding convention, has served in a parliamentary alliance with Boris Tadić's Social Democratic Party since 2016 and is the deputy leader of the grouping.[4][5] Rašković Ivić, who was selected as one of five deputy vice-presidents at the same convention, is the current leader of the New Serbia–Movement for Serbia's Salvation group.[6] Dijana Vukomanović, a former member of the Socialist Party of Serbia who now serves on the presidency of the People's Party,[7] is also a member of the New Serbia–Movement for Serbia's Salvation caucus.[8]

Another member of the National Assembly, Đorđe Vukadinović is also closely tied to the party, and supported it since its inception. He was elected as part of the same list as Sanda Rašković-Ivić (Dveri-DSS) but later went independent.

It is a centre-right,[9] and liberal-conservative party,[10] although it also maintains protectionist views regarding the economy.[11] Since its inception the party has positioned itself as an opposition party to the government, led by Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Jeremić stated he is a pro-EU politician, but he opposes Serbia joining NATO.[12][13] The party advocates raising the electoral threshold for gaining National Assembly seats from the current 3% to 10%.[14]

• List of political parties in Serbia
• Conservatism in Serbia