The Party of Freedom and Justice ( sr, Странка слободе и правде, Stranka slobode i pravde, SSP) is a social-democratic

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

. It is led by

Dragan Đilas Dragan Đilas ( sr-cyr, Драган Ђилас, , born 22 February 1967) is a Serbian businessman and politician who served as the mayor of Belgrade from 2008 to 2013. From 25 November 2012 until 31 May 2014, he served as the President of the ...

. It was founded in April 2019 after a merger of the Green Ecological Party and Serbian Left. Since its inception, it has placed itself as a major opposition political party in Serbia after leading two opposition alliances, the

Alliance for Serbia The Alliance for Serbia ( sr, Савез за Србију, Savez za Srbiju) was a major extra-parliamentary catch-all opposition alliance of political parties in Serbia that was founded in September 2018. The alliance boycotted the 2020 parlia ...

, United Opposition of Serbia, and United for the Victory of Serbia.

History

Background and formation

The Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) was formed out of the Green Ecological Party (ZES), a political party which was established in 2008. Dejan Bulatović was the leader of ZES after 2015. He led ZES into a coalition with the

Greens of Serbia The Greens of Serbia ( sr, Зелени Србије, Zeleni Srbije; abbr. ЗС or ''ZS'') is a green political party in Serbia. Established on 14 September 2007, this party advocates environmental and ecological wisdom, social justice and sol ...

(ZS), which fell apart before the

2017 Serbian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Serbia on 2 April 2017. Incumbent president Tomislav Nikolić was eligible to run for a second five-year term, but opted not to do so. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić was elected president in the first round ...

, and was a part of the "Civic Bloc 381" which was formed in 2018 and headed by the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG); ZES left the bloc in November 2018. A month later, ZES joined the

(SzS), an opposition political alliance led by

. A series of anti-government protests began in December 2018 after an attack on

Borko Stefanović Borko Stefanović (born 5 February 1974, born as Borislav Stefanović) is a Serbian politician who was the leader of the Levica Srbije political party. Prior to founding Levica Srbije, he was active in the Democratic Party in Serbia, with whom h ...

; SzS supported the protests. In March 2019, it was announced that Đilas made an agreement with Bulatović to reconstruct the party as SSP and with Đilas as the party's president; Đilas previously stated that "he had no plans of buying ZES". Alongside ZES, the Serbian Left (LS), a political party led by Stefanović, and ten movements and individuals merged into SSP. The founding convention was held on 19 April 2019, in which Đilas was chosen president, Stefanović as deputy president, and Bulatović and

Marinika Tepić Marinika Tepić (; sr-Cyrl, Мариника Тепић, ; born 8 August 1974) is a Serbian politician. She is a vice-president of the Party of Freedom and Justice (''Stranka slobode i pravde'', SSP) and a prominent figure in the opposition to ...

as vice-presidents. Bulatović resigned and left the party in December 2022.

Political positions

At the founding convention in April 2019, Đilas stated that the party would focus on economic prosperity and

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

, and that it would adopt a "declaration of reconciliation" regarding the Kosovo issue. SSP is orientated towards

social democracy Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...

. It sits on the

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...

on the political spectrum, and it advocates and supports the

accession of Serbia to the European Union The accession of Serbia to the European Union (EU) has been on the current agenda for the future enlargement of the EU since 2012, when it became a candidate for accession. Serbia officially applied for European Union membership on 22 Decembe ...

. It criticized China's investments into Serbian infrastructure.

Presidents of the Party of Freedom and Justice

Electoral performance

Parliamentary elections

ImageSize = width:600 height:70 PlotArea = width:500 height:50 left:20 bottom:20 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2019 till:31/12/2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2019 Legend = columns:3 left:40 top:75 columnwidth:90 Colors = id:Opposition value:red legend:Opposition Define $dx = 25 Define $dy = -1 PlotData= bar:Govern. color:blue width:25 mark:(line,black) align:center from:19/04/2019 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:Opposition

Presidential election

Provincial election

Belgrade City Assembly election

References

{{Serbian political parties 2019 establishments in Serbia Political parties established in 2019 Pro-European political parties in Serbia Social democratic parties in Serbia Green parties in Europe Centre-left parties in Europe