Project: Security issues within Serbian 2016 election campaign
13Apr2016

Election Monitoring: Political parties on security issues

The latest Public Policy Research Centre’s analysis on the election monitoring shows that the major political coalitions have not taken clear positions on a range of security issues such as domestic violence, democratic control of security structures and euro-atlantic integration. The election monitoring includes sixelectoral lists formed by SNS, SPS, DS, SDS, DSS-Dveri, and SRS. It examines representatives’ statements published in print and electronic media.

This analysis covers the period between 30th March and 10th April and it has showed that most of statements made by parties’ representatives were either reactions to events and decisions of political actors outside Serbia or those are given in commemoration of different anniversaries. Topics regarding individual and social groups’ security, further reform of security sector and its democratic control are almost entirely out of parties’ focus.

“Based on the campagin content and statements, it seems political parties neither show enough interests in the way how security strustures operate nor have skills, knowledge and human resources to make a proposal and program for further improvements in the security sector. Simultaneoulsy, political parties do not provide any information about their views about key security issues in Serbia”, said researcher on this project Jelena Radoman.

“Electoral campaign is characterized by coalltions without clear ideological and programmatic commonalities.Topics concerning the security of citizens, local communities, and vulnerable groups as well as coherent approaches to these are insufficiently utilized. Numerous statements were merely a follow-up on incidents rather than indications of long-term plans and well-reasoned arguments. Consequently, there is a lack of constructive debate on the principles and guidelines for the future security policy in Serbia and a lack of the institutional principles that should be implemented”, said CENTRE’s director, Svetlana Djurdjević-Lukić.

It is often unclear whether reresentatives of the ruling coalition act as a party member or as an official. The most noticeable example is Minister of Interior Stefanovic’s statement about the creation of policing teams for prevention of election frauds. The oposiiton assssed the statement as "unlawful and dangerous", and "open advocacy of a police state by the SNS."

NATO is the most common topic in the current electoral campaign, compared to all the others from the wider range of topics related to security issues. According to the Public Policy Research Centre, the first reason is the anniversary of the NATO bombing, which was marked during the campaign. Almost all the parties released a statement regarding this event. The second reason is an effort of right-wing parties - the coalition Dveri-DSS, as well as the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) - to emphasize the condemnation of NATO, including the signing of the Law on Ratification of the Agreement with NATO (IPAP), as the backbone of their electoral campaign.

Among the ruling coalition, the most explicit in condemning the NATO military operation which has been marked as "aggressor" were representatives of SPS, the party that created and conducted interior and foreign policy of Serbia during the bombing.

The parties gathered around the SNS in their programs and performances have polarized views on NATO. Leader of the Alliance of Vojvodina’s Hungarians (LSV) Istvan Pastor is basically the only one who pleaded in favor of membership in NATO, while pro-NATO approach has been expressing also the president of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), Vuk Draskovic. At the other extreme within this coalition is Serbian People's Party’s Nenad Popovic who underlines that "NATO obliterated the traces of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija" and advocates the necessity of cooperation with Russia.

President of the Social Democratic Party (SDS), Boris Tadic pleaded in favor of "neutrality of the Austrian type" or active neutrality, as a model for the Serbian security policy. This attitude, however, is relativized by the fact that Cedomir Jovanovic’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a SDS coallition partner, previously underlined the necessity of joining NATO. Therefore, citizens have no clear information as to whether the attitude is agreed within the coalition SDS-LDP.

Based on sporadic statements made by the Vice-President of the Democratic Party (DS) Gordana Comic and several other members of the party, it seems that DS holds an understanding of security which is close to the modern discourse in which the security and the rule of law are intertwined, comprising impartial and non-discriminatory treatment of the citizens.

The research is grounded in qualitative and quantitative analysis and it observes the frequency of topics related to security issues, proposed solutions, consistency within the same coalition, and accordance with the existing party programs. It includes all the dailies, weeklies–NIN, Vreme, Pečat, Nedeljnik, Newsweek, Svedok, Geopolitika, Novi magazin – TV and news programs – RTS1, RTS2, Prva, Studio B, B92, Happy, Pink, Naša TV, N1 – andpolitical TV shows – Upitnik, Da možda ne, Ćirilica, Oko magazin, and Tako stoje stvari.

The election monitoring refers to articles and TV reports in which the performances are explicitly made on behalf of a political party/coalition.

The monitoring of six electoral lists in first phase covered period between 18th and 29th March, and this second phase between 30th March and 10th April, 2016. The Public Policy Research Center will carry out the election monitoring until the end of the 2016 electoral campaign. The analysis for these two phases are available in Serbian here and here. 

The project has been supported by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF).