Serbia: The anti-people government has been replaced by the anti-people opposition

Statement of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ)

The NKPJ states that the change of government following the parliamentary elections held on October 25 will not lead to even an iota of improvement in the very poor position of the working people of Serbia. The reason is simple. The bourgeois, pro-imperialist government of the Serbian Progressive Party and its coalition partners has been replaced by the bourgeois, pro-imperialist opposition "Students' List". This reactionary formation is a continuation of the anti-people policy of the notorious DOS, which Western imperialism installed in power in Serbia after the October 5 counter-revolutionary coup in 2000, the implementation of which liquidated the remaining achievements from the period of socialist construction in our country. Accordingly, the working people of Serbia have nothing to rejoice about, because the anti-people government will be replaced by an anti-people opposition.

The SNS ruled for 14 years, dedicatedly continuing the retrograde privatization process started by DOS in 2001, distributing subsidies to foreign companies in order to help them achieve the highest possible extra profit, and securing the lowest corporate tax in our region. The SNS relieved private employers of paying a number of parafiscal duties, thereby reducing the influx of funds into the budget for healthcare and education, tightened the conditions for granting sick leave, and stubbornly refused until its last day to declare Sunday a non-working day for retail employees. Serbia is, moreover, the only country in the former SFRY where retail workers are required to work on Sundays to create profit for their capitalist bosses. During the rule of the Progressives, amendments to the Labor Law were passed that are completely anti-worker, thus continuing the modification of labor legislation in favor of exploiting big capital that began during the DOS era.

In practice, the SNS government ignored the occupation of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija and the terror that the Albanian separatist puppet pro-imperialist regime carries out against the Serbian people in that territory. The SNS continued with the retrograde process of Serbia joining the prison of nations, the European Union, whose goal is to make the rich even richer and the poor even poorer. Also, the Armed Forces of Serbia maintain cooperation with NATO within the "Partnership for Peace", even though it is the strike force of Western imperialism that broke up SFR Yugoslavia and caused a bloody brotherly war on its territory, carried out aggression against FR Yugoslavia in 1999, occupied Kosovo and Metohija, and later broke up the joint state of Serbia and Montenegro. Everything that DOS did during the 10 years of its reactionary rule, SNS continued from 2012 until today.

On the other hand, through its propaganda machinery, the government irritated the people with fairy tales about a high standard of living and average salaries of around 1,000 euros, even though in reality that wage is among the lowest in Europe. To this should be added that half of the employees in the country can only dream of that salary because they receive less than 794 euros per month, which is the median wage. From January, the minimum wage will be 600 euros. How little that is is shown by the facts that the average consumer basket is worth 943 euros, and the minimum is 485 euros (it will increase by January). The government led by Aleksandar Vucic also bragged about the highest pensions in history, yet the value of the average pension from January next year will be only around 520 euros. These are all the reasons why the Serbian Progressive Party lost power, and its most significant coalition partner, the Socialist Party of Serbia, remained below the census threshold in the newly concluded elections.

The period during which the ideological successor of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia will rule, the anti-people "Students' List" led by former officials of the Democratic Party and supported by all bourgeois pro-imperialist parties represented in the parliament so far, could be even worse for the interests of the citizens of Serbia than the SNS government.

The policy of joining the EU will be continued, as will military cooperation with NATO, and eyes will continue to be closed to the fact that Kosovo and Metohija is under the occupation of Western imperialism, but under pressure from Brussels, cooperation with friendly China will be terminated as well. Also, although some leaders of the "Students' List" claim that there will be no imposition of sanctions on Russia, it is a big question whether a consensus on this will be reached among the leaders of that reactionary formation.

The NKPJ and its youth organization, SKOJ, participated in the elections for the National Assembly of Serbia on the list of the Russian Party, with which they share common views on the EU, NATO, cooperation with brotherly Russia and BRICS, and the anti-fascist struggle. The list won 0.2 percent of the votes, which is an excellent election result considering that it faced unequal treatment in the media and had significantly less campaign money compared to the largest bourgeois pro-imperialist parties in Serbia. The votes of communists, who supported the list at the invitation of the NKPJ and SKOJ, also contributed to this good result.

The NKPJ assesses that the election campaign was utilized to the maximum extent to propagate the struggle of the working people against exploitation and Western imperialism.

The NKPJ takes this opportunity to most strongly condemn the so-called "citizens' assemblies" that support the "Students' List" for the shameful and brutal attack on Informer television that took place the day after the elections. Although a member of the leadership of our youth and student organization was previously bestially targeted by that television station, which completely ignores the activities of the NKPJ and SKOJ, and whose editorial policy we have serious objections to and consider harmful, we will always condemn an attack on people who are at their workplace performing their duties, and we act accordingly in this case as well.

In the end, the NKPJ calls upon the working class, rural proletariat, students, pensioners, youth, the unemployed, Yugoslavs, and the honest intelligentsia to form an electoral front that will include all progressive, anti-fascist, and leftist forces in the fight against the exploitation of others' labor and Western imperialism.

Secretariat of the NKPJ,

Belgrade,

01.11.2026.