The Party of Freedom and Justice (, abbr. SSP) is a social democratic political party in Serbia. It is led by Dragan Đilas, the former mayor of Belgrade.
Founded in 2019 as the merger of the Green Ecological Party – The Greens and Serbian Left, SSP was a member of the Alliance for Serbia (SZS), a coalition of opposition political parties that was initiated by Đilas in 2018. Together with SZS, SSP boycotted the 2020 parliamentary election, claiming that the election would not be free and fair. After the election, SSP became part of the United Opposition of Serbia (UOPS), the successor of SZS. UOPS would be eventually dissolved in January 2021, due to disputes between SSP and the People's Party (Narodna). In late 2021, SSP and Narodna returned together with the Movement of Free Citizens and Democratic Party to form the United for the Victory of Serbia (UZPS) alliance, which was officially formalised in February 2022, to take part in the 2022 general election. The elections resulted in the SSP gaining 10 seats in the National Assembly and 6 seats in the City Assembly of Belgrade. UZPS was also dissolved after the elections. In the 2023 elections, it was part of the Serbia Against Violence alliance.
SSP is a centre-left political party and it serves in opposition to SNS. A self-described anti-corruption party, the party is also opposed to party employment, while regarding economy, SSP has called for tax reforms that would bring in progressive taxation. SSP supports financing free textbooks and school meals for school children, and has called for the introduction of a new labour law. The party supports the accession of Serbia to the European Union, wants Serbia to harmonise its foreign policy with the European Union, and initiate sanctions on Russia regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. SSP has criticised Chinese investments into infrastructure and it had adopted a platform in which they pledged "reconciliation, cooperation, and the acceptance of diversity" between countries in the Balkans. Supporters of SSP are pro-European while they also see themselves as socially progressive. SSP is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists.
History Background and formation
The Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) was formed out of the Green Ecological Party – The Greens (ZEP–Zeleni), a political party that was established in 2008. Dejan Bulatović was the leader of ZEP–Zeleni after 2015. He led the party into a coalition with the Greens of Serbia (ZS), which fell apart before the 2017 presidential election, and was a part of the Civic Bloc 381 coalition which was formed in 2018 and headed by the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG). ZEP–Zeleni left the bloc in November 2018. A month later, ZEP–Zeleni joined the Alliance for Serbia (SZS), an opposition political alliance initiated by Dragan Đilas in 2018. A series of anti-government protests began in December 2018 after a physical attack on Borko Stefanović; SZS supported the protests.
In March 2019, it was announced that Đilas agreed with Bulatović to reconstruct the party as SSP with Đilas as the party's president; Đilas previously stated that he had no plans of buying ZEP–Zeleni. Alongside ZEP–Zeleni, the Serbian Left (LS), a political party led by Stefanović, and ten movements and individuals merged to create SSP. The founding convention was held on 19 April 2019, at which Đilas was chosen president, Stefanović as deputy president, and Bulatović and Marinika Tepić as vice-presidents. Following its formation, SSP gained two seats in the National Assembly of Serbia and 13 seats in the City Assembly of Belgrade.
2019–2021: Early years SSP announced that it would boycott the 2020 parliamentary election in September 2019, claiming that the election would not be free and fair. This position was adopted by SZS later that month. Mass protests that began in 2018 formally ended in March 2020 due to the proclamation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia. After the June 2020 parliamentary election, SZS was dissolved and subsequently transformed into the United Opposition of Serbia (UOPS), in which SSP also took part. However, UOPS remained unstable; SSP announced in December 2020 that it would form a joint platform with the PSG regarding the inter-party dialogues on electoral conditions. This was opposed by the People's Party (Narodna), which ultimately led to the dissolution of UOPS in January 2021.
SSP presented its political platform for the inter-party dialogues in February 2021. The dialogues lasted from July to October 2021, though SSP left the dialogues in September 2021 after stating that the proposed document is "unacceptable" (neprihvatljiv), claiming that the document does not offer concrete solutions regarding electoral conditions. After leaving the dialogues, SSP renewed its cooperation with Narodna, which led to the announcement that they would take part in a coalition for the 2022 general election. In November 2021, it was announced that Tepić would be the ballot representative of the joint coalition, which was mainly composed of SSP, Narodna, PSG, and the Democratic Party (DS).
2022–present: Mainstream prominence
Shortly before the January 2022 constitutional referendum, SSP called for citizens to not take part in the referendum. Later in January 2022, SSP proposed Zdravko Ponoš of Narodna as the presidential candidate of the joint coalition. This coalition was formalised in February 2022 under the name United for the Victory of Serbia (UZPS), when Ponoš was confirmed to be their joint presidential candidate. In the parliamentary election, UZPS won 14% of the popular vote and 10 seats in the National Assembly, while Ponoš won 18% of the popular vote, placing second behind Aleksandar Vučić, the incumbent president of Serbia. Additionally, SSP won 6 seats in the City Assembly of Belgrade in the 2022 Belgrade City Assembly election. Following the elections, Đilas met with Vučić to discuss about the outcome of the Belgrade City Assembly election. This resulted into criticism from Narodna; DS also added that Đilas did not consult with other coalition members before the meeting. This ultimately led to the dissolution of UZPS.
Following the elections, SSP announced that it would form a joint parliamentary group with PSG, Movement for Reversal, and United Trade Unions of Serbia "Sloga" in the National Assembly and City Assembly of Belgrade; these groups were formalised under the name Ujedinjeni. Đilas was re-elected president of SSP in July 2022, while Stefanović, Tepić, and Bulatović retained their positions; Goran Petrović and Dušan Nikezić also became vice-presidents of the party. Bulatović however left SSP and the Ujedinjeni parliamentary group in December 2022, claiming that Tepić allegedly lobbies for the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). He then met with several government ministers before forming the Alliance of Social Democrats citizens' group in January 2023.
SSP took part in the 2023 mass protests, which began after the Belgrade school shooting and a mass murder near Mladenovac and Smederevo in early May 2023. The Ujedinjeni parliamentary group changed its name to Forward to Europe in July 2023. SSP became part of the Serbia Against Violence (SPN) coalition in October 2023, a coalition of political parties organising the 2023 protests. SPN announced that it will take part in the 2023 parliamentary, Vojvodina provincial, and Belgrade City Assembly elections. Along with Miroslav Aleksić from the People's Movement of Serbia, Tepić was announced as one of the representatives of SPN. In the parliamentary election, SPN won 65 seats, 16 of which went to SSP. After the elections, SPN organised anti-government protests which lasted until 30 December. During the protests, Tepić and other SSP politicians were on a hunger strike.
Once the 14th National Assembly of Serbia was constituted, SSP formed a joint parliamentary group with PSG. This group was dissolved in April 2024, after which SSP formed a parliamentary group on its own. The City Assembly of Belgrade was not constituted because the quorum was not met during the constitutive session. A new election was then called for 2 June. SSP opposed the participation in the new snap election on the grounds that electoral conditions did not improve. This ultimately led to the dissolution of SPN. Parties that decided to take part in the election formed the We Choose Belgrade electoral alliance. In October 2024, Željko Veselinović and Đorđe Đorđić left the SSP parliamentary group, with Đorđić leaving SSP altogether. They were followed by Sonja Pernat and Irena Živković in November; Veselinović announced the formation of a new political party before 2025. He subsequently announced the formation of the Workers' Party. In November 2025, it was announced that the Movement for Reversal would merge into SSP.
Since November 2024, student-led anti-corruption protests have been held in Serbia. SSP has since then advocated for the formation of a transitional government as an end to the crisis. In June 2026, SSP became part of the Platform for a European Serbia coalition.
Ideology and platform
Political leanings At the founding convention in April 2019, Đilas stated that SSP would focus on economic prosperity and education, and that it would adopt a declaration of reconciliation regarding the Kosovo issue. This declaration was presented in May 2019, with SSP stating that the declaration "predicts the way to solve the people's life problems [in Kosovo]" (predviđa put rešavanja životnih problema ljudi [na Kosovu]). SSP serves in opposition to SNS. Describing itself as an anti-corruption party, SSP proposed a law regarding the "fight against corruption of public officeholders" (borbu protiv korupcije javnih funkcionera) in November 2019; Tepić noted that the proposal was written on the model of practice of former Romanian anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Kövesi. SSP is also opposed to "party employment" (stranačko zapošljavanje), saying that "it should not matter whether you are a member of a political party, but whether you have the qualifications to do a certain job" (neće biti važno da li ste član stranke, već da li imate kvalifikaciju da radite određeni posao). In July 2022, SSP criticised attacks on investigative journalists.
Ideologically, SSP has been described as a social democratic party, and it is positioned on the centre-left on the political spectrum. Dušan Spasojević, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of University of Belgrade, noted that within the party, Đilas is closer to the political centre, while Tepić is significantly more leftist. Regarding social issues, Spasojević positioned SSP on the centre-left. SSP supported the manifestation of 2022 EuroPride in Belgrade.
Economy SSP criticised the increase on toll fees in June 2019, claiming that the quality of the roads has not improved since 2017, when the toll fees were previously increased. Later in December 2019, SSP presented its proposed law on the origin of property at its party session, which according to Stefanović would confiscate property from those who cannot prove that they acquired it legally. According to its programme from 2020, SSP guaranteed to "implement tax reforms that would introduce a progressive taxation of citizens' income and reduce taxes and contributions to 60% of net earnings" (sprovođenje poreske reforme kojom će se uvesti progresivno oporezivanje dohotka građan i smanjivanje poreza i doprinosa 60% neto zarade), while it also stated its support for abolishing parafiscal taxes and introduce tax reliefs for donations and endowments in health, culture, and sports.