The Independent Democratic Party of Serbia ( sr-cyrl, Самостална Демократска странка Србије, Samostalna Demokratska stranka Srbije, Samostalni DSS) was a conservative political party in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

that existed from 2015 to 2020. The Samostalni DSS was formed in 2015 following a split in the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). Its leader was

Andreja Mladenović Andreja Mladenović ( sr-Cyrl, Андреја Младеновић; 15 March 1975) is a Serbian politician. He was the deputy mayor of Belgrade from 2014 to 2018 and is currently one of the city's three assistant mayors. For many years a prominen ...

, who served as deputy

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of Belgrade from 2014 to 2018 and was briefly a parliamentarian 2016.

History

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its allies won a majority victory in the

2014 Belgrade City Assembly election The local election for the City Assembly of Belgrade, City Assembly of Belgrade, capital of Serbia, was held on 16 March 2014, alongside 2014 Serbian parliamentary election, parliamentary election. The election was scheduled in late 2013, after t ...

with sixty-three seats out of 110. The DSS finished in fourth place with nine seats and subsequently joined the SNS in a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

. Andreja Mladenović, who had led the DSS group in the city assembly in the previous term, became Belgrade's deputy mayor with SNS support. In July 2015, DSS leader

Sanda Rašković Ivić Dr. Sanda Rašković Ivić ( sr-cyrl, Санда Рашковић Ивић, ; born 8 January 1956) is a Serbian psychiatrist, psychotherapist and politician. From 2014 to 2016, she was the president of the Democratic Party of Serbia. She was comm ...

expelled Mladenović and six members of the party's Belgrade assembly group on the grounds that they were attempting to turn the DSS into a satellite of the Progressive Party. The expelled members described this decision as unjust and contrary to party policy and established the Samostalni DSS with Mladenović as leader. They initially identified as a fraction within the DSS and said they would work for the party's renewal. The Samostalni DSS later became a distinct party, and Mladenović was formally chosen as leader at a founding convention in October 2015. Branches were established in several municipalities throughout Serbia, and delegates in some municipal assemblies joined the party. Mladenović established an alliance between the Samostalni DSS and the SNS at the republic level and in Belgrade. He was himself included in the tenth position on the Progressive Party's coalition

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

in the

2016 Serbian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 24 April 2016. Initially, the election were originally due to be held by March 2018, but on 17 January 2016 Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić called for a snap election claiming Serbia "needs four m ...

; this was tantamount to election, and he was indeed elected when the list won a majority victory with 131 out of 250 mandates. His term was brief. He could not hold a

dual mandate A dual mandate is the practice in which elected officials serve in more than one elected or other public position simultaneously. This practice is sometimes known as double jobbing in Britain and ''cumul des mandats'' in France; not to be confused ...

as a national assembly member and deputy mayor of Belgrade and so resigned his seat on 3 October 2016. The Samostalni DSS seems to have become largely inactive as an organization by 2017, although Mladenović was re-elected to the Belgrade assembly in the

2018 Belgrade City Assembly election Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

. Formally, his endorsement was from the SNS. He was briefly the acting mayor of Belgrade in May–June 2018 before becoming an assistant to new mayor Zoran Radojičić. In November 2019, the Samostalni DSS announced a merger with the Movement for the Development of Serbia and the National Democratic Political Council to form the Independent Serbian Party. The merger was made official in February 2020 with Mladenović as the party's first leader."Osnovana Samostalna srpska stranka, predsednik Andreja Mladenović"
''Danas'', 19 February 2020, accessed 3 May 2021.

References

{{Serbian political parties 2015 establishments in Serbia 2020 disestablishments in Serbia Conservative parties in Serbia Defunct conservative parties Defunct political parties in Serbia Political parties disestablished in 2020 Political parties established in 2015