Serbian Progressive Party
The Serbian Progressive Party is a conservative and right-wing populist political party in Serbia.
Founded in 2008 as a split from the far-right Serbian Radical Party, the culmination of a decade-long conflict within the SRS between the party's moderate and hard-line wings, the SNS managed to retain the former's national conservative outlook, while adopting distinct pro-European policies.
This combination has transformed the SNS into the current ruling party in Serbia. As it is the senior party in the current government coalition, the party's leader Aleksandar Vučić is currently serving as the President of Serbia since 2017. As of August 2018, the party holds 96 seats in the National Assembly.
History
The Serbian Progressive Party was formed by a group of 21 former Serbian Radical Party MPs led by Tomislav Nikolić. Disenchanted with the direction of the party, the pro-EU members left and formed the Forward Serbia parliamentary group. The SNS was founded and held its first congressional meeting on 21 October 2008.Of the Serbian Radical Party's representatives elected in the 2008 parliamentary election, 21 moved to the Serbian Progressive Party, while 57 remained in the SRS.
In 2011, the SNS formed a pre-election coalition with New Serbia, the Strength of Serbia Movement and the Movement of Socialists to participate in the 2012 election.
In the 2012 parliamentary election, the party led the "Let's Get Serbia Moving" coalition and gained 55 seats out of 73 won by the coalition in the National Assembly. Party leader Tomislav Nikolić defeated Boris Tadić of the Democratic Party in the second round of the 2012 presidential election.
Following his election as President of Serbia, Nikolić stepped down as leader of the party on 24 May 2012, leaving deputy president Aleksandar Vučić in charge until a successor was elected. Vučić was the only candidate who ran for the party leadership, and was elected on 29 September 2012, with Jorgovanka Tabaković as his deputy.
In December 2012, the People's Party led by ex-Mayor of Novi Sad Maja Gojković, merged into the SNS.
The Serbian Progressive Party maintains cooperation with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Fidesz, Freedom Party of Austria and United Russia party. On 24 April 2013 the SNS' representatives in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe joined the Group of the European People's Party.
On 18 March 2019 the Serbian Progressive Party in Belgrade signed a joint statement with the United Russia party to improve Russia-Serbia strategic partnership in the interests of both nations.
On 2 April 2020, Twitter announced that they removed 8,558 reportedly fake accounts that promoted the ruling Serbian Progressive Party of Aleksandar Vučić and criticized the opposition.
Presidents of the Serbian Progressive Party (2008–present)
Electoral performance
Parliamentary elections
Years in government (2012–)
ImageSize = width:450 height:70
PlotArea = width:400 height:50 left:20 bottom:20
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2021
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2008
Legend = columns:2 left:40 top:75 columnwidth:90
- there is no automatic collision detection,
- so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap
id:Government value:green legend:Government
id:Opposition value:red legend:Opposition
Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar
Define $dy = -1 # adjust height
PlotData=
bar:Govern. color:blue width:25 mark: align:center
from:21/10/2008 till:27/07/2012 shift: color:Opposition
from:27/07/2012 till:end shift: color:Government
Presidential elections
Positions held
Major positions held by Serbian Progressive Party members:| President of Serbia | Years |
| Tomislav Nikolić | 2012–2017 |
| Aleksandar Vučić | 2017– |
| Prime Minister of Serbia | Years |
| Aleksandar Vučić | 2014–2017 |
| Ana Brnabić | 2017– |
| President of the National Assembly of Serbia | Years |
| Nebojša Stefanović | 2012–2014 |
| Maja Gojković | 2014– |
| Governor of the National Bank of Serbia | Years |
| Jorgovanka Tabaković | 2012– |
| President of the Government of Vojvodina | Years |
| Igor Mirović | 2016– |
| Mayor of Belgrade | Years |
| Siniša Mali | 2014–2018 |
| Zoran Radojičić | 2018– |