Liberals of Serbia

The Liberals of Serbia (Serbian: Либерали Србије, romanized: Liberali Srbije; abbr. ЛС, LS) was a political party in Serbia.

Liberals of Serbia Либерали Србије Liberali Srbije
Founder	Dušan Mihajlović
Founded	10 July 1990
Dissolved	13 April 2010
Preceded by	Social Democratic Youth League
Headquarters	Rajićeva 22, Belgrade
Youth wing	Mladi Liberali Srbije
Ideology	Liberalism Pro-Europeanism Atlanticism
Political position	Centre to centre-left
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colours	Orange, Blue
Website
Politics of Serbia Political parties Elections

History

The party was founded in 1990 when the Social Democratic Youth League reconstituted itself as Movement for Serbia – New Democracy. The party was renamed to just New Democracy in March 1993.^[1]

In the 1993 election, when the Socialist Party of Serbia lost its majority in parliament, New Democracy, which had previously belonged to the DEPOS, supported the socialists in gaining a parliamentary majority necessary to form a government, citing Milošević's commitment to securing a peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[2] In 1998, New Democracy left the government and was replaced by the Serbian Radical Party.

In 2000, New Democracy was a part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition, the candidate of which, Vojislav Koštunica, won the 2000 presidential elections. At the parliamentary election in the same year, the party was part of the same coalition and participated in the government which was formed by DOS. In 2003 the party was renamed Liberals of Serbia.

At the parliamentary election on 28 December 2003 Liberals of Serbia put up as candidates the former Serbian Interior Minister Dušan Mihajlović and the former Chief of Serbian Police, General Sreten Lukić, the latter indicted for war crimes in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The party won 0.7% of the popular vote and no seats.

In October 2005 Mihajlović stepped down and Radivoje Lazarević, former Yugoslav ambassador to Brazil, took over as party president.^[3]

In 2010, acting president of the party, Miroslav Stefanović, was fined 150.000 RSD for falsely accusing Vladimir Beba Popović of being responsible for the assassination of Zoran Đinđić in 2007.^[4]

The party ceased to exist in 2010.^[5]

Electoral performance

Parliamentary elections

Year	Popular vote	% of popular vote	# of seats	Seat change	Coalitions	Government
1992	797,831	16.89%	1 / 250	1	DEPOS	opposition
1993	715,564	16.64%	6 / 250	5	DEPOS	opposition (1993–1994) yes
1997	1,418,036	34.26%	5 / 250	1	Left Coalition	government (1997–1998) no
2000	2,402,387	64.09%	9 / 250	4	DOS	government
2003	22,852	0.59%	0 / 250	9		non-parliamentary
2007	134,147	3.33%	0 / 250		With SPO–NSS	non-parliamentary

Federal elections

Year	Popular vote	% of popular vote	# of seats	Seat change	Coalitions	Government
1996	1,848,669	42.90%	3 / 250	3	Left Coalition	government (1997–1998) opposition (1998–2000)
2000	2,040,646 (Chamber of Citizens) 2,092,799 (Chamber of Republics)	42.88% (Chamber of Citizens) 43.98% (Chamber of Republics)	4 / 250	1	DOS	government

See also

• Liberalism in Serbia
• Serbian Liberal Party

References

1. Goati, Vladimir (2001). Izbori u SRJ od 1990. do 1998. : volja građana ili izborna manipulacija? (PDF) (in Serbian) (2 ed.). Belgrade: CeSID. p. 89. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
2. Ignja, Petar (23 October 1997). "SA RADIKALIMA – NIKAKO". nin.co.rs. NIN. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
3. Đ., G. (4 October 2005). "Promena spremana 15 godina" (in Serbian). Glas javnosti. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
4. "Liberalu potvrđena kazna zbog klevetanja Vladimira Popovića". blic.rs. Blic. 6 July 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
5. Didanović, Vera (4 February 2010). "Šta je ostalo od DOS-a". vreme.rs. Vreme. Retrieved 20 March 2018.

External links

• (in Serbian)