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Despite the institution of a multiparty system in Serbia in 1990, Serbian President Slobodan Milosovic’s regime tightly controlled political opposition throughout most of the 1990’s. The regime repressed independent media, assuring that nationalist sentiment continued to be cultivated through state-owned media. By 1996, however, the situation began to change when a strong and popular pro-reform political movement emerged in the Republic of Serbia in the winter of 1996-1997.
In the 1996 local elections, opposition political groups won power in many of Serbia’s largest cities. The Milosevic government’s attempt to annul the elections results brought thousands of pro-democracy protesters to the streets. Three months of demonstrations forced Slobodan Milosevic’s government to eventually back down and respect the result of the elections. Responding to the opportunity, IRI received funding from U.S. Agency for International Development to initiate an intensive program of support for Serbia’s pro-democracy political parties and student resistance organizations in June 1997.
In 1998, students launched a national campaign against Milosevic’s first steps toward war in Kosovo. In the fall of 1999, the student resistance movement OTPOR, or “Resistance,” began to build a national network of activists, and to organize protests against crackdowns on media and academic freedoms.
The OTPOR protests grew by the spring of 2000 into a substantial challenge to the regime. At the same time, OTPOR began to plan a national GOTV campaign for the September elections. After elections were called, OTPOR organized an extensive GOTV campaign, which coordinated door-to-door contacts with events throughout the country and contributed significantly to the remarkable 78 percent voter turnout on Election Day.
After 12 years of authoritarian rule by Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia’s democratic forces finally achieved their breakthrough in 2000. They defeated Milosevic in the Yugoslav presidential election in September 2000 and sealed their victory in the December republic elections, when the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) won a two-thirds majority in the Serbian Parliament.
In January 2001, the DOS formed a Serbia republic government under the leadership of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and announced a broad agenda of political and economic reform.
The DOS faced enormous challenges in rebuilding Serbia’s economy and making visible improvements in the daily lives of Serbia’s citizens. The economy inherited from Milosevic’s regime was utterly devastated following a decade of crony capitalism, wars, and sanctions.
Although the DOS originally was a broad coalition of 18 parties which came together for the sole purpose of defeating Milosevic, political infighting among the political party leaders in the coalition stifled effective governance and reform. The failure of the DOS to deliver on promises of economic development and institutional reform and increased partisanship alienated many of their former supporters.
In December 2003 parliamentary elections, the task of forming a government fell to the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), who after protracted negotiations over more than two months, formed a minority government composed of G17Plus and other smaller reform parties, and supported by the Serbian Socialist Party (SPS) in Parliament. The DS, for its part, remained in opposition.
While the DSS-led coalition attempted to implement the reforms necessary to move Serbia closer to integration with Western institutions, continued infighting among the pro-reform parties slowed progress.
However, the June 2004 presidential elections were a ray of hope for reformist parties, particularly the candidacy and victory of DS President Boris Tadic, who had worked hard to rebuild his party after the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and the 2003 election defeat. Tadic ran a smart and positive campaign that addressed issues of direct relevance to voters such as jobs and the economy.
In January 2007, early parliamentary elections were held. The SRS remained the most popular party in the country and captured 28.58 percent of the vote. Further, former President Milosevic’s SPS was also able to cross the five percent electoral threshold with 5.64 percent of the vote. However, reform-oriented parties such as the DS, the DSS,
G17Plus, and the coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were all successful in their efforts to enter parliament.
The pre-election environment certainly benefited the SRS and SPS. The continuing issue of cooperation with the ICTY, widespread corruption, the perception of slow reforms and the specter of an imminent resolution on Kosovo all served to push voters towards the more nationalist parties. However, by implementing a strong campaign of identifying and turning out their voters, reformist parties were able to capture two-thirds of the vote.
Currently, the process of forming a new government continues. A reformist government cannot be formed without cooperation between the DS and the DSS, as these two parties together control 111 of 126 seats needed to form a majority government. While many obstacles remain, most notably the issues of ICTY cooperation and the pending Kosovo resolution, Serbia is making steady progress in strengthening its democratic processes and becoming more integrated with the rest of Europe and the world.
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Through a series of trainings and consultations, IRI assists pro-reform political parties and their leaders in developing issue-based policies that differentiate the parties based on how they address key concerns of citizens. IRI also helps parties implement, streamline and coordinate their policy making efforts, while facilitating relationships with domestic and international think tanks and parties in Central and Eastern Europe.
IRI’s issue-based coalition training seminars focus on helping political parties identify key issue areas for potential cooperation with other parties, the mechanics of coalition building, and effective coordination of communication efforts. Additionally, IRI works to sustain and improve the efficacy of democratic governing coalitions in municipalities. Conducting coalition capacity-building trainings, IRI helps local coalition governments incorporate strategies and lessons learned from other successful local coalitions in Serbia and in other post-communist countries in the region.
Sustainable campaign capacities
