Sreto Perić (; born 23 September 1959) is a Serbian politician. He has served four terms in the Serbian parliament and held high municipal office in Ljubovija. Perić is a member of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS).
Early life and career Perić was born in Srebrenica, in what was then the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. After graduating from the University of Sarajevo Faculty of Law, he worked for the brake device company Feros in Srebrenica and was director of general personnel and procurement affairs for the company Diva in Valjevo, Serbia.Velika Srbija [Radical Party publication], Volume 15 Number 1838 (Belgrade, September 2004), p. 18.
Politician Early years and first parliamentary terms Perić was the Radical Party's candidate for Ljubovija's twenty-first division in the 2000 Serbian local elections.Velika Srbija [Radical Party publication], Volume 11 Number 1201 (Belgarde, September 2000), p. 18. Like all SRS candidates in the municipality, he was defeated.Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 51. This was the last local election cycle in which candidates were elected for single-member constituencies; all subsequent elections have been held under proportional representation.
Perić appeared in the twenty-eighth position on the Radical Party's electoral list in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election and was given a mandate when the list won eighty-two seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2. СРПСКА РАДИКАЛНА СТРАНКА - др ВОЈИСЛАВ ШЕШЕЉ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024."Skupština čeka demokrate", , Glas javnosti, 13 January 2004, accessed 28 December 2024.PRVA SEDNICA, 27.01.2004., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 18 May 2018. (From 2000 to 2011, Serbian parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order. Perić was not automatically elected by virtue of his list position.)Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, , accessed 13 April 2024. Although the Radicals won more seats than any other party in this election, they fell well short of a majority and ultimately served in opposition for the term that followed. In his first assembly term, Perić was a member of the legislative committee.Детаљи о народном посланику: ПЕРИЋ, СРЕТО , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 1 December 2024.
Serbia introduced the direct election of mayors with the 2004 local elections. Perić was the Radical Party's candidate in Ljubovija and was eliminated in the first round of voting.The fact that Perić was the Radical Party's candidate is confirmed in Velika Srbija [Radical Party publication], Volume 15 Number 1838 (Belgrade, September 2004), p. 18. The fact that he did not make it to the second round is confirmed in Velika Srbija [Radical Party publication], Volume 15 Number 1956 (September 2004), pp. 16-17. This notwithstanding, he was also one of six SRS candidates elected in the concurrent municipal assembly election. The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) won the election and afterward formed a coalition government that included the Radicals; Perić was appointed as a member of the municipal council (i.e., the executive branch of the local government).Direktorijum lokalnih samouprava u Srbiji, Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), September 2005, pp. 192-193. His position was jeopardized in 2007–08, when two rival coalitions claimed to have a majority of seats in the assembly."Dve skupštine i dva predsednika", Vreme, 26 April 2007, accessed 7 December 2024.
Perić received the seventy-third position on the Radical Party's list in the 2007 parliamentary election and was again chosen for a mandate when the list won eighty-one seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (4 Српска радикална странка - др Војислав Шешељ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024."Spisak poslanika za Skupštinu Srbije", Politika, 13 February 2007, accessed 24 December 2024. As in 2003, the Radicals won more seats than any other party, fell short of a majority, and served in opposition; a coalition of the Democratic Party (DS), the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), and G17 Plus came to power. Perić served on the legislative committee, the committee for justice and administration, and the committee for Kosovo and Metohija.Детаљи о народном посланику: ПЕРИЋ, СРЕТО , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 1 December 2024.
The coalition government formed after the 2007 election was unstable and collapsed in early 2008, leading to a new parliamentary election in May of that year. Perić appeared in the ninety-eighth position on the SRS list and was again included in his party's delegation after the list won seventy-eight seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (4 СРПСКА РАДИКАЛНА СТРАНКА - Др ВОЈИСЛАВ ШЕШЕЉ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.R. Ognjanović, "U klupama novi poslanici", Novosti, 10 June 2008, accessed 29 June 2022.11 June 2008 legislature, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 5 March 2017. The overall results of the election were inconclusive, and the Radicals afterward held discussions with the DSS and the Socialists about forming a new coalition government. This ultimately did not happen. The Socialists instead joined a coalition government led by the For a European Serbia (ZES) alliance, and the Radicals remained in opposition. In his third term, Perić was a member of the legislative committee, the committee for science and technological development, and the parliamentary friendship group with Russia.СРЕТО ПЕРИЋ, , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 1 December 2024.
The direct election of mayors proved to be a short-lived experiment and was abandoned with the 2008 Serbian local elections, which took place concurrently with the parliamentary vote. Perić was one of five SRS members elected to the Ljubovija assembly. The DS formed a new government in the municipality, and the Radicals served in opposition.Lokalni Izbori 2008; Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; p. 51.Zora Latinović, "Kol`ko da stane u gumenjake", NIN, [unspecified date in 2009; reposted 20 September 2023], accessed 1 December 2024. In 2009, during a heated debate over the legitimacy of the local government, Perić threw and broke a microphone in front of the president of the assembly.R. Blanuša, "Radikal slomio mikrofon", Novosti, 29 July 2009, accessed 18 May 2018.
The Radical Party experienced a serious split in late 2008, with several prominent members joining the more moderate Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) under the leadership of Tomislav Nikolić and Aleksandar Vučić. Perić remained with the Radicals. In April 2010, he was elected as a member of the party's presidency."Martinović novi potpredsednik SRS-a", Radio Television of Serbia, 23 April 2010, accessed 29 December 2024.
Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that all parliamentary mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order.Law on the Election of Members of the Parliament (2000, as amended 2011) (Articles 88 & 92) made available via LegislationOnline, , accessed 6 June 2021. Perić was given the twenty-third position on the Radical Party's list for the 2012 parliamentary election.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 6. мај 2012. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2 СРПСКА РАДИКАЛНА СТРАНКА - ДР ВОЈИСЛАВ ШЕШЕЉ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 13 April 2024. Weakened by the split four years earlier, the party fell below the electoral threshold for assembly representation, and Perić lost his seat. The Radicals also fell below the threshold in Ljubovija in the concurrent 2012 local elections.ЛОКАЛНИ ИЗБОРИ 2012, Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia, p. 66.
Politics at the republic level since 2012 Perić was promoted to the nineteenth position on the Radical Party's list in the 2014 Serbian parliamentary election, in which the party again fell below the electoral threshold.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 СРПСКА РАДИКАЛНА СТРАНКА - ДР ВОЈИСЛАВ ШЕШЕЉ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 13 April 2024.
He received the fourteenth position on the party's list for the 2016 parliamentary election and was elected to a fourth assembly term when the list won twenty-two seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине, 24. април 2016. године – Изборне листе (4 Др ВОЈИСЛАВ ШЕШЕЉ - СРПСКА РАДИКАЛНА СТРАНКА), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. The Serbian Progressive Party and its allies won a majority victory, and the Radicals once again served in opposition. In his fourth term, Perić was a member of the judiciary committee, a deputy member of spatial planning committee, a member of the commission for the control of the execution of criminal sanctions, and a member of the friendship groups with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Spain, and Venezuela.SRETO PERIC, , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 1 December 2024.
In 2019, he took part in a Radical Party delegation to Srebrenica to commemorate Serbs who died in the area during the last two wars (i.e., World War II and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s)."Delegacija SRS na parastosu Srbima u Srebrenici", Radio Television of Vojvodina, 12 July 2019, accessed 1 December 2024.
Perić appeared in the sixteenth position on the Radical Party's list in the 2020 parliamentary election, the tenth position in the 2022 parliamentary election, and the eighth position in the 2023 parliamentary election."Ko je sve na listi radikala?", Danas, 9 March 2020, accessed 2 July 2021."Ko su kandidati Srpske radikalne stranke za poslanike", Danas, 18 February 2022, accessed 3 June 2022."Ko je ko na listi SRS: Šešelji, Radeta, Damjanović…", Nova, 4 November 2023, accessed 11 April 2024. In each instance, the list failed to cross the electoral threshold.
Politics at the local level since 2012 The Radical Party won two seats in Ljubovija in the 2016 Serbian local elections.Lokalni Izbori – Republika Srbija, Lokalni Izbori 2016, Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia, p. 60. Perić, who appears to have led the party's list, was re-elected to the local assembly and served for the term that followed.Skupština Opštine, , Municipality of Ljubovija, accessed 1 December 2024.Službeni List (Opštine Ljubovija), 2020 Number 15 (17 August 2020), p. 5.