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Serbian Radical Party

The Serbian Radical Party (Serbian: Српска радикална странка or Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS) is a nationalist right-wing political party in Serbia. It was formed in 1991 when the People's Radical Party (a party from the 1990s, not Nikola Pašić's People's Radical Party) and the Serbian Chetnik Movement joined into one organization. The Serbian Chetnik Movement was formed after a split in the Serbian Renewal Movement in 1990. It supports the Greater Serbian ideal and is said to claim Chetnik heritage. On 23 December 2007 the Party of Serbian Unity of former Željko Ražnatović Arkan merged into SRS.

Leadership

During the 1998-2000 period it formed governments with the Socialist Party of Serbia at times, while it also spent its time in opposition, with the leader, Vojislav Šešelj, landing in jail in 1994. Šešelj is awaiting trial at the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. He was associated with activities of paramilitary units during the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[7]

The SRS's deputy president, leading the Party while Šešelj is in The Hague, is Tomislav Nikolić. Nikolić won one of the invalid presidential elections when less than 50 per cent of citizens voted. In the last presidential election the law on voter turnout was abolished. In first round of Serbian presidential elections, 2004 he won about 30% of votes. In the second round he lost to the DS leader Boris Tadić, winning 45%.

Platform

^{[citation needed]}

The Radical Party's policies include implementing United Nations Resolution 1244 allowing the Serbian police and Serbian army to protect Serbian citizens in the province of Kosovo, a Serbian province under UN administration. The SRS had been part of a Government coalition with Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia during his presidency.

Since the SRS picked up a plurality in the December 2003 parliamentary elections, it has added many social elements to its program.

Elections

In the 2003 general elections, the SRS picked up a plurality of seats and votes, with 27.6% of the popular vote and 82 out of 250 seats.

Winning 1,153,453 or 28.59% of the total people that voted on the Serbian parliamentary election, 2007 and received 81 seat out of total 250. The party formed alone a SRS MP club who's president became Tomislav Nikolić and Aleksandar Vučić vice-president. On the National Assembly's first session on February 14 2007 all party members voted against the accepting of Martti Ahtisaari's proposal for the preliminary solution for the status of Kosovo.

Parliamentary results

• 1992 parliamentary election: 1,066,765 votes, 73 of 250 seats
• 1993 parliamentary election: 595,467 votes, 39 of 250 seats
• 1997 parliamentary election: 1,162,216 votes, 82 of 250 seats
• 2000 parliamentary election: 322,333 votes, 23 of 250 seats
• 2003 parliamentary election: 1,069,212 votes, 82 of 250 seats
• 2007 parliamentary election: 1,153,453 votes, 81 of 250 seats
• 2008 parliamentary election: 1,203,266 votes, 78 of 250 seats

Presidential results

• Failed 1997 presidential election: Vojislav Šešelj
  • First round: 1,126,940 votes, 27.28%
  • Second round: 1,733,859 vote, 49.10% (Relative winner, but election failed as election turnout did pass threshold))
• 1997 presidential election: Vojislav Šešelj
  • First round: 1,227,076 votes, 32.19%
  • Second round: 1,383,868 votes, 37.57%
• First failed 2002 presidential election: Vojislav Šešelj
  • First round: 845,308 votes, 23.24%
• Second failed 2002 presidential election: Vojislav Šešelj
  • First round: 1,063,296 votes, 36.08%
• Failed 2003 presidential election: Tomislav Nikolić
  • First round: 1,166,896 votes, 46.23%
• 2004 presidential election: Tomislav Nikolić
  • First round: 954,339 votes, 30.60%
  • Second round: 1,434,068 votes, 45.40%
• 2008 presidential election: Tomislav Nikolić
  • First round: 1,646,172 votes, 39.99%
  • Second round: 2.197.155 votes, 47.97%

Outreach

The party had a presence in Republika Srpska and Republic of Serbian Krajina in the early 1990s. In 2006 a Radical Party of Serbs in Macedonia has been registered and gained the status of candidate in the Republic of Macedonia's 2006 Parliamentary elections. The party is registered as Party of Danube Serbs in Croatia, Party of Serb Radicals in Montenegro, and Serbian Radical Party of the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Further reading

• Irvine, Jill A.; Carol S. Lilly (March 2007). "Boys Must be Boys: Gender and the Serbian Radical Party, 1991-2000". Nationalities Papers 35 (1): 93-120. 

References

External links

• Serbian Radical Party Official Website (Serbian)
• War crime suspects go for win in Serb poll - The Guardian
• Vojislav Seselj: Milosevic's hard-line ally - BBC
• International Herald Tribune - Vojislav Seselj goes on trial at The Hague over Serbian crimes
• The New York Times: Serb Nationalist’s Trial Begins in The Hague
• Chetnik leader's war crimes trial - TIME
• Serbia's Seselj incited ethnic cleansing - Reuters
• Serbian Radical Party: The Hubris of Serbian Political Scene - Global Challenges Research