Željko Veselinović (; born 1974) is a Serbian union leader and politician who is currently the president of the United Trade Unions of Serbia "Sloga". He was one of the founders of the Alliance for Serbia which dissolved in 2020 and transformed into the United Opposition of Serbia.
Early life and career Veselinović was born in 1974 in Smederevo. He has a degree in economics.
He started working as a trade unionist at the end of 2000 in the then Smederevo Sartid. In 2003, he was elected the youngest union president in the history of the factory. Five years later, he founded "Sloga" and became its second president.
He served as Bojan Pajtić's advisor for labor relations and socio-economic issues, at the time when Pajtić was leading the Government of AP Vojvodina. As it is pointed out in his official biography: "One of the few people who in his career went through all instances from the shift commissioner in the factory to the president of the national union." He led and organized several strikes and protests, and is a member of the network of trade unionists at the European Left and the European Social Forum. It was speculated that he would run for the presidency of Serbia in 2017 elections, but he did not do that as he decided to endorse Vuk Jeremić.
In 2018, a new opposition Alliance for Serbia was formed and Veselinović's "Sloga" was one of the founding members. Veselinović was also the first chairman of the alliance. He served as a member of the City Assembly of Belgrade. The alliance was dissolved in August 2020 and transformed into the United Opposition of Serbia. In a later interview to Danas, he said that he thinks that unions should be more involved in politics.
After the 2023 Serbian parliamentary election, Veselinović was elected to the National Assembly on the Serbia Against Violence list and joined the parliamentary club of the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP). In October 2024, he and fellow MP Đorđo Đorđić announced their departure from the SSP parliamentary club. Veselinović described the move as one of the most difficult decisions of his life, said he had personally informed SSP president Dragan Đilas of his intention back in June, and announced that the two would continue the opposition struggle as independent MPs.
Amid the student-led anti-corruption protests and opposition demands for snap parliamentary elections, Veselinović attended consultations with President Aleksandar Vučić on 9 April 2026 as the head of the United Trade Unions of Serbia "Sloga" and as an MP, accompanied by Đorđo Đorđić, while the bulk of the parliamentary opposition refused to attend. In the wake of the meeting, MPs Sonja Pernat and Slavica Radovanović left his "Pokret radnika Sloga – Struka" parliamentary group in protest. Veselinović subsequently characterised Vučić as a "velemajstor za ovu opoziciju" ("grandmaster for this opposition"), praising the president's political skill at the expense of his opposition rivals.
On 30 April 2026, Veselinović's Workers' Party (Radnička partija), headquartered in Nušićeva Street in Belgrade, was entered in the Register of Political Parties and published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia. In May 2026, Vladimir Gajić, president of the People's Party, publicly confirmed that he was close to a final agreement with Branimir Nestorović's We–The Voice from the People on joint participation in any forthcoming elections, with media reports indicating that Veselinović's newly founded Workers' Party was expected to join the same joint electoral list.
Personal life He speaks English. He is married and has two sons.
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