Vojvodina Front (Serbia)

Vojvodina Front ( sr, Војвођански фронт, Vojvođanski front, abbr. VF) was a parliamentary group in the Assembly of Vojvodina. It was chaired by Saša Šućurović while Aleksandar Odžić served as deputy chairman.

Formed as a political coalition in 2019 between League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, Vojvodina's Party, and Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina (DSHV), VF later became a member of the nation-wide United Democratic Serbia coalition that also included parties like Serbia 21, Civic Democratic Forum, and Party of Modern Serbia. In the parliamentary election, VF failed to cross the 3 percent electoral threshold, losing all of its seats in the National Assembly of Serbia, however, it won 6 seats in the provincial election. VF did not take part in the 2022 parliamentary election and it instead stated its support to the DSHV–Together for Vojvodina coalition. VF lost its seats in the 2023 provincial election and ceased to exist in February 2024.

Although it served in opposition to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on provincial level, VF was part of the local SNS-led government in Novi Sad until 2023. It unsuccessfully led a campaign on giving "Vojvodinian" the status of a nationality for the 2022 national census.

History

Formation

At a gathering in May 2019, Nenad Čanak, the president of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV), announced that the Vojvodina Front (VF) would be formed by October. Besides LSV, it was also announced that Aleksandar Odžić's Vojvodina's Party (VP) would take part in the coalition. Čanak described VF as the "last front of citizens who are not giving up on themselves and what is theirs". During this period, opposition parties, namely the Alliance for Serbia coalition, opted to boycott the 2020 parliamentary election and sessions of the National Assembly of Serbia. LSV did not take this path and it instead continued to attend sessions in the National Assembly. VF was officially formalised on 7 November 2019; Čanak, Odžić, and Tomislav Žigmanov, the president of the Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina (DSHV), were one of the signatories.

2019–2020

Shortly after its formation, members of VF adopted the "Memorandum on the Future of Vojvodina", in which the parties emphasised their support for democracy, commitment to the accession of Serbia to the European Union and NATO, and giving Vojvodina more autonomy. The document was also signed by the Alliance of Vojvodina Romanians, Montenegrin Party (CP), Alliance of Slovaks of Vojvodina, Together for Vojvodina (ZZV), Liberal Democratic Movement of Vojvodina, and Forum V–21. During the same period, Čanak announced that VF would take part in the 2020 elections. In March 2020, its electoral list for the local election in Novi Sad was accepted by Novi Sad's Electoral Commission. Alongside LSV and VP, ZZV was also featured on the list. In the same month, the United Democratic Serbia (UDS) coalition was formed for the 2020 parliamentary election; VF, Serbia 21 (S21), Civic Democratic Forum, and Party of Modern Serbia were its founding members. They later submitted their electoral list for the parliamentary election.

A month later, in April, VF formed a parliamentary group in the National Assembly with S21, named "Vojvodina Front–Serbia 21". Its members included Čanak, Nada Lazić, and Olena Papuga from LSV, Žigmanov from DSHV, and Marko Đurišić and Nenad Konstantinović from S21. In the parliamentary election, UDS did not cross the 3 percent electoral threshold and lost all of its seats in the National Assembly. In the provincial election, however, VF, crossed the threshold and won 6 seats in total. In Novi Sad, VF also crossed the threshold, winning 3 seats in the City Assembly of Novi Sad. According to non-governmental organisation Transparency Serbia, VF spent around €24,000 in billboard and poster advertisements during the campaign period. After the elections in Novi Sad, LSV remained a member of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)-led local government in Novi Sad, however, VF declined to give its support for the provincial government led by SNS.

2021–2024

Beginning in 2021, VF has campaigned on introducing "Vojvodinian" as a nationality for the 2022 census. However, their campaign went unsuccessful, considering that "Vojvodinian" retained its status as a regional identity, and not a national one. Čanak was succeeded by Bojan Kostreš as president of LSV in November 2022. In February 2023, LSV left the local government in Novi Sad and joined the opposition. The parliamentary group ceased to exist on 9 February 2024, when the Assembly of Vojvodina was constituted in the aftermath of the 2023 Vojvodina provincial election.

Ideology and platform

VF was initiated as a coalition of supporters of Vojvodina autonomism, which also included those who supported federalisation of Serbia. VF was in favour of returning Vojvodina's autonomous rights as written in the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution. Čanak also noted that VF would support the accession of Serbia to the European Union, decentralisation within Serbia, and anti-fascism. VF also advocated for further secularism.

While campaigning for the 2020 elections, VF has stated that the government should play a role in helping vegetable producers and has criticised government's actions towards farmers in Bačka Palanka. VF has also called for the government to help entrepreneurs, small business owners, and agricultural producers during the state of emergency that was proclaimed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Members

At the time of its formation, VF had LSV, VP, and DSHV as its members. In late 2019, they were also joined by several minor parties and organisations. For the 2020 provincial election, LSV, VP, and DSHV were also joined by ZZV, CP, and the Democratic Bloc. After that, LSV and VP only remained its members.

In the Assembly of Vojvodina, VF had 6 members; 5 were affiliated with LSV while the sole VP member in the Assembly of Vojvodina was Odžić. Saša Šućurović was the chairperson of the VF parliamentary group while Odžić was the deputy chair.

Electoral performance

Parliamentary elections

Provincial elections

Local elections

Notes

References

{{Serbian political parties
2019 establishments in Serbia
2024 disestablishments in Serbia
Anti-fascism in Serbia
Centre-left parties in Europe
Defunct political party alliances in Serbia Parliamentary groups in Serbia
Political parties disestablished in 2024
Political parties established in 2019]
Politics of Vojvodina
Pro-European political parties in Serbia
Regionalist parties
Secularism in Serbia
Vojvodina autonomist political parties