Movement of Free Citizens (Serbia)

The Movement of Free Citizens (Serbian: Покрет слободних грађана, ПСГ / Pokret slobodnih građana, PSG) is a social-liberal and social democratic political movement in Serbia. It was founded after 2017 presidential elections, by Saša Janković, who ended up second with nearly 17% of the vote.[2] It has no representatives in the National Assembly, since it was founded after the last parliamentary elections in Serbia.

Movement of Free Citizens Покрет слободних грађана Pokret slobodnih građana
President	Sergej Trifunović
Founder	Saša Janković
Founded	21 May 2017 (2017-05-21)
Headquarters	Belgrade
Membership (Feb 2019)	2,500
Ideology	Social democracy Social liberalism Environmentalism Pro-Europeanism[1]
Political position	Centre to centre-left
Colours	cyan, white and red
National Assembly	0 / 250
Assembly of Vojvodina	0 / 120
City Assembly of Belgrade	8 / 110
Website
pokretslobodnih.rs
Politics of Serbia Political parties Elections

History

Saša Janković was in the position of state ombudsman, and as such, he often criticized practices of the government, led by SNS and Vučić. This positioned him among voters as opposition spokesperson and led to him enjoying relatively high ratings in relation to actual opposition leaders and politicians.[3] As his term was about to end, he decided to resign and run in the presidential elections, scheduled for April 2017. His most notable endorsement came from the Democratic Party, which decided to support Janković, rather than to have a candidate of its own.[4] This helped him create a relatively united front against Vučić in the upcoming elections.

In the aftermath of the elections, Janković, who finished second with 16.3% of the vote, decided to form his own political movement, rather than joining the Democratic Party. His movement "Apel 100", formed for the purposes of gathering support from intellectuals and other notable citizens for his presidential candidacy, was thereby transformed into a political organization, the Movement of Free Citizens.[2]

Despite competing against each other in the presidential election, Janković's movement now cooperates closely with the People's Party, a party formed by Vuk Jeremić after the election.[5]

Some of the founders of the Movement are Goran Marković, Zdravko Šotra, Nikola Đuričko, Sergej Trifunović, Srbijanka Turajlić, Borka Pavićević and Vlado Georgiev.

Many of the founding members have left the Movement, accusing Janković of running it like his own 'company', and revealed that Janković's wife exerts enormous influence on how the Movement is run.[6] Following the accusations, the Movement's Presidency held an emergency meeting, where Janković offered his resignation, a motion denied by the Presidency.[7] This turmoil within the Movement led political analysts and other opposition leaders and politicians to question the capacity of Janković and the Movement to lead the opposition against Vučić's government.[8]

On 17 December Janković resigned.[9] Candidates for the new president were actor Sergej Trifunović and lawyer Aleksandar Olenik. Elections were held on 26 January 2019, and Trifunović won with 60% of the votes.[10] Olenik and most of other high officials left the movement and announced creation of new party, Civic Democratic Forum.[11]

Trifunović supported protests against Vučić. Movement signed Agreement with people along with other opposition parties on 6 February.[12] After nine months of protests and the unsuccessful conclusion of the negotiation mediated by the University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences and NGOs, on August 2019, Trifunović wrote an open letter to David McAllister, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, asking him to consider facilitating a cross-party dialogue.[13] The first round of inter-party European Parliament-mediated dialogue in Serbia took place two months later.[14]

Presidents of the Movement of Free Citizens

No.	President		Birth–Death	Term start	Term end
1	Saša Janković		1970–	21 May 2017	17 December 2018
2	Sergej Trifunović		1972–	26 January 2019	Incumbent

Acting leaders

#	Name	Born–Died	Term start	Term end
–	Rade Veljanovski	1952–	18 December 2018	26 January 2019

Electoral results

Parliamentary elections

National Assembly of Serbia

Election	Popular vote	% of popular vote	# of seats	Seat change	Government
2020	50,765	1.58%	0 / 250		no seats

Presidential elections

President of Serbia

Election	Candidate	#	1st round votes	%	#	2nd round votes	%
2017	Saša Janković[nb 1]	2nd	597,728	16.35%	N/A	—	—

See also

• List of political parties in Serbia

References

Notes

1. https://talas.rs/2019/11/02/zivotni-standard-psg/
2. "Osnovan pokret Saše Jankovića".
3. "Vlast se plaši rejtinga Saše Jankovića".
4. "Demokratska stranka podržala Sašu Jankovića za predsednika Srbije".
5. "Narodna stranka i PSG počeli razgovore o saradnji".
6. "Škoro: Da sam znao samo pet odsto svega, nikad ne bih ušao u PSG (In Serbian)".
7. "Janković ponudio ostavku na mesto predsednika PSG, skupština odbila (In Serbian)".
8. "Janković više nije "pouzdanica" opozicije (In Serbian)".
9. "Saša Janković se povlači iz aktivnog političkog života i s mesta predsednika PSG". N1. 17 December 2018.
10. "Sergej Trifunović izabran za predsednika PSG". Danas. 26 January 2019.
11. "Osnovan Građanski demokratski forum". N1 Srbija (in Serbian). Retrieved 2020-06-12.
12. "Opozicija u Srbiji dogovorila 'Sporazum sa narodom'". RFE/RL. 6 February 2019.
13. "Leader of Serbia's opposition party asks for EP's mediation of cross-party talks in a letter to McAllister". European Western Balkans. Retrieved 2019-08-26.
14. "First EP-mediated dialogue in Serbia: Part of the opposition refuses to participate". European Western Balkans. Retrieved 2019-10-11.

Footnotes

1. Janković was officially the candidate of an unofficial citizens' group. Which, after the election, become a movement.