Democratic Party of Serbia

Foundation

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) was founded in 1992 by a breakaway nationalist faction of the Democratic Party (DS), which advocated involvement in the Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS).^[7]

Founding members of the party were Vojislav Koštunica, Vladeta Janković, Đurđe Ninković, Draško Petrović, Mirko Petrović and Vladan Batić. The founding assembly was held on July 26, 1992 and elected Vojislav Koštunica as its first president. The first party assembly was held on December 5, 1992 and adopted the party's first manifesto.

Vojislav Koštunica, founder and first president

1992–1999

The DSS first competed in the December 1992 parliamentary elections. As part of DEPOS, the DSS received 18 seats in the National Assembly of Serbia - which grew to 20 after non-party-aligned members of DEPOS decided to leave the Parliament. Soon, similar differences of opinion over ways in which to fight the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and the approach to national issue that led to division in DS, appeared in DEPOS too. The DSS left the coalition in mid-1993.^[7]

Next parliamentary elections in Serbia were called prematurely for December 19, 1993. This time DSS ran independently and received seven seats. This was a period of the party's political stagnation as it did not have enough seats to significantly influence matters in Serbia and was left without representation in the Federal Assembly.

In 1996, opposition Zajedno (Together) coalition was created. DSS entered the 1996 federal parliamentary elections as part of the coalition and won four seats in the Federal Assembly.^[7]

Post–2000

The DSS was a founding member of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) whose presidential candidate and leader of the DSS, Vojislav Koštunica defeated Slobodan Milosevic in the 2000 Yugoslav presidential election held on 24 September 2000 winning 50.24% of the vote and defeating Slobodan Milošević who contested the election results.^[7]

In the December 2000 Serbian parliamentary election, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia won 64.7% of the popular vote, securing 176 seats in the National Assembly. The DSS was allocated 45 seats. In the ensuing Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition government, DSS had very little influence with just two cabinet-level ministerial posts, that of Deputy Prime Minister (held by Aleksandar Pravdić) and Minister of Health (held by Obren Joksimović) as well as very few second tier posts of Deputy Minister. The DSS was unhappy with the direction of the DOS Government policy and split from the coalition in late 2001.^[8]

In the 2003 parliamentary election, the DSS won 17.7% of the popular vote, translating into 53 seats in the parliament. Of these 53 seats, three went to the People's Democratic Party (NDS), one to the Serbian Liberal Party and one to the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS).

In 2004 NDS left the coalition with DSS, leaving it with 50 seats in the National Assembly. However, in 2005 both the NDS and the SDS merged into the DSS, bringing its size to 52 seats in the National Assembly.

The DSS won 47 seats in coalition with New Serbia in the 2007 parliamentary election, receiving 667,615 votes or 16.55% of the total popular vote. DSS itself received 33 seats in the parliament, and formed a group together with New Serbia, the Serbian Democratic Renewal Movement and United Serbia.

The leader of the DSS since its foundation, Vojislav Koštunica, was the Prime Minister of Serbia between March 2004 and July 2008 heading up two coalition governments. The first coalition government between March 2004 and July 2007 in coalition with Serbian Renewal Movement and G17 Plus. The second coalition government between July 2007 and July 2008 in coalition with the Democratic Party and G17 Plus.

In the early 2008 parliamentary election held in May 2008 following the self-proclaimed declaration of independence by the Serbian province of Kosovo, the DSS won 30 seats in the National Assembly in coalition with New Serbia. It won 480,987 votes representing 11.62% of the electorate. In coalition with New Serbia 2008-10, it formed the second largest opposition block in the Serbian parliament.

Since 2008 the DSS has positioned itself as a staunch defender of the premise that Kosovo should remain within Serbia (in some shape or form) and that further negotiations must take place to determine a workable political outcome regarding Kosovo and Serbia. Because of this approach, the DSS is against Serbia joining the EU if in return it is bound to acknowledge the legitimacy of the self-proclaimed independent Kosovo.

The party has become increasingly nationalistic and eurosceptic since the independence of Kosovo. In 2012, Vojislav Koštunica stated that the EU is destroying Serbia, and that Serbia should give up on EU membership. The party left the European People's Party in February 2012. ^[9]

The party competed independently in the 2012 parliamentary elections in May 2012 and received 7% of the popular vote (273,532 votes) translating into 21 Members of Parliament.

In 2014, founder and first president of DSS Vojislav Koštunica left the party over its abandonment of the idea of political neutrality. Subsequently, Slobodan Samardžić, Dragan Jočić, Vladeta Janković and Dejan Mihajlov also announced their departure in response to differences of opinion over the course of DSS.

Acting leaders

Ref:^[10]

#	Name		Born–died	Term start	Term end
	Aleksandar Popović		1971–	19 March 2014	12 October 2014
	Dragan Maršićanin		1950–	2 August 2016	21 December 2016

Parliamentary elections

National Assembly of Serbia

Election	# of votes	% of vote	# of seats	+/-	Coalitions	Government
1992	797,831	16.89%	18 / 250	18	DEPOS	opposition
1993	218.056	5.07%	7 / 250	11		opposition
1997	Election boycott	Election boycott	0 / 250	7		non-parliamentary
2000	2,402,387	64.09%	45 / 250	45	DOS	government (2000–2001) opposition (2001–2004)
2003	678,031	17.73%	53 / 250	8		government
2007	667,615	16.55%	33 / 250	20	With NS-JS	government
2008	480,987	11.62%	21 / 250	12	With NS	opposition
2012	273,532	7.00%	21 / 250	0		opposition
2014	152,436	4.24%	0 / 250	21		non-parliamentary
2016	190,530	5.04%	6 / 250	6	With SPD	opposition

Years in government (1992– )

Presidential elections

President of Serbia

Election year	#	Candidate	1st round votes	%	2nd round votes	%	Notes
Serbian presidential election, 1992	2nd	Milan Panić	1,516,693	32.11
September–October 2002	1st	Vojislav Koštunica	1,123,420	30.89	1,974,450	68.4	Election declared invalid due to low turnout
December 2002	1st	Vojislav Koštunica	1,699,098	57.66	—	—	Election declared invalid due to low turnout
2003	2nd	Dragoljub Mićunović	893,906	35.42	—	—	Election declared invalid due to low turnout - In Coalition Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS)
2004	4th	Dragan Maršićanin	414,971	13.31	—	—	Government Coalition (Democratic Party of Serbia, G17 Plus, Serbian Renewal Movement, New Serbia)
2008	3rd	Velimir Ilić	305,828	7.43	—	—	Supported by: Democratic Party of Serbia, United Serbia, Serbian Renewal Movement and List for Sandžak
2012	4th	Vojislav Koštunica	290,861	7.44%	—	—
2017	10th	Aleksandar Popović	38,167	1.04%	—	—