Miroslav Stefanović (; born 7 December 1947) is a Serbian former politician. He served in the parliaments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and the successor State Union of Serbia and Montenegro on an almost continuous basis between 1993 and 2004. Stefanović was a member of New Democracy (ND), which was renamed as the Liberals of Serbia (LS) in 2003; he served as the party's final leader from 2007 to 2010.
Early life and private career Stefanović was born in Ljig, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture and worked as an architect, designing numerous buildings and winning several awards. He has served as president of the board of directors of the Kolubara company.Miroslav Stefanović, , Democratic Opposition of Serbia, 3 December 2000, accessed 2 May 2026.Мирослав Стефановић - потпредседник, , Liberals of Serbia, 26 June 2007, accessed 2 May 2026.
Politician Serbia transitioned from a one-party socialist state to a (nominally) multi-party democracy in 1990, and Stefanović became a founding member of New Democracy in that year. During the 1990s, Serbian political life was dominated by the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milošević, president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).
DEPOS representative In 1992, New Democracy joined the Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS), an opposition coalition led by the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO). Stefanović appeared in the second position on the DEPOS electoral list for the Chamber of Citizens in the Užice constituency in the December 1992 Yugoslavian parliamentary election and was assigned a mandate when the list won three seats.Borba, 26 November 1992, p. 13.ИЗБОРИ '92: ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (1993), pp. 16, 30. (From 1992 to 2000, one-third of the mandates in Yugoslavian parliamentary elections were assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds were assigned to other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. Stefanović was not automatically elected by virtue of his list position but received a mandate all the same.)Borba, 26 December 1992, p. 5. He took his seat when the new assembly convened in February 1993; during this time, he was the only New Democracy member of the Chamber of Citizens.Borba, 13 January 1993, p. 10.Borba, 3 February 1993, p. 11. The Socialist Party of Serbia and its Montenegrin allies won the election, and the DEPOS representatives served in opposition.
Stefanović became the president of New Democracy's board of directors in March 1993.Borba, 23 March 1993, p. 8. In the same month, he proposed the establishment of an inquiry committee to ascertain the property status of parliamentarians and their families and to examine the legality of the operations of companies owned or overseen by parliamentarians or their families.Borba, 30 March 1993, p. 4. In April 1993, he and New Democracy leader Dušan Mihajlović called for the Yugoslavian and Serbian parliaments to formally endorse an open letter sent by Yugoslavian president Dobrica Ćosić, Serbian president Slobodan Milošević, and Montenegrin president Momir Bulatović to the Republika Srpska assembly, urging acceptance of the Vance–Owen plan to end the Bosnian War.Borba, 27 April 1993, p. 7.
In June 1993, SPO leader Vuk Drašković and his wife Danica were arrested, beaten, and sent to a high-security prison following street protests in Belgrade. When asked about these events, federal minister of human rights and minority rights Margit Savović responded, "Whoever fights, must expect to be beaten." Stefanović condemned this statement, saying that Savović had condoned the violation of the couple's human rights and, in the process, had grossly violated several articles of the Yugoslavian constitution.Borba, 18 June 1993, p. 4. He later called for an opposition boycott of both the republic and federal parliaments.Borba, 14 July 1993, p. 8. International pressure ultimately brought about the couple's release from prison, and the boycott did not take place.
Stefanović criticized the powers of the Supreme Defense Council in a September 1993 debate on the Draft Law on the Yugoslav Army, describing the council as being under the control of Milošević.Borba, 23 September 1993, p. 3.
Alliance with the Socialist Party The Socialist Party won 123 out of 250 seats in the 1993 Serbian parliamentary election and achieved a parliamentary majority in February 1994 through a coalition government with New Democracy, which had six seats. Dušan Mihajlović justified the arrangement on the grounds that the party could more effectively influence Serbian politics in government than in opposition.Robert Thomas, Serbia Under Miloševic: Politics in the 1990s, (London: Hurst & Company), 1999, pp. 191-192. Although New Democracy did not join the government at the federal level, the alliance of the parties effectively made Stefanović a supporter of Yugoslavia's SPS-led administration. In April 1994, he and Mihajlović took part in a Serbian government delegation to Kosovo to promote Dragoslav Avramović's economic program.Borba, 8 April 1994, p. 4. Notwithstanding this, Stefanović still criticized the government on occasion; later in 1994, he said that New Democracy would withdraw its support from the government if its implementation of the Avramović plan should falter.Borba, 27 October 1994, p. 8.
In December 1994, Stefanović accused the Democratic Party (DS) of trying to achieve power by illegitimate means, through indirect influence over Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) and through incitement to continue the wars in Bosnia and Croatia. DS leader Zoran Đinđić rejected these accusations.Borba, 10 December 1994 p. 5.
In January 1996, Stefanović submitted a proposal for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to join the Partnership for Peace program.Borba, 12 January 1996, p. 3.
New Democracy participated in the 1996 Yugoslavian parliamentary election as the junior partner in an alliance with the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Yugoslav Left (JUL). Stefanović appeared in the fourth and final position on the alliance's electoral list for the Chamber of Citizens in the smaller, redistributed Užice division."KANDIDATI ZA SAVEZNE POSLANIKE", uzice.net, 15 October 1996, accessed 14 March 2026. The list won two seats; lead candidate Milisav Čutović of the JUL was automatically elected, and Stefanović received the alliance's "optional" mandate.ИЗБОРИ '96: ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (1996), p. 53. The SPS–JUL–ND alliance and its Montenegrin partners won the election, and Stefanović initially served as a government supporter. He led New Democracy's federal assembly group, which at the time comprised four members, and took part in negotiations for a new federal administration, emphasizing his party's support for greater integration with Europe and the broader international community.Borba, 11 February 1997, p. 1.Borba, 28 February 1997, p. 1.
In July 1997, Stefanović endorsed Slobodan Milošević's candidacy for Yugoslavian president.Borba, 16 July 1997, p. 8.
New Democracy's alliance with the Socialist Party had irrevocably broken down by mid-1999, and on 16 August of that year Stefanović and two of the party's other representatives in the Chamber of Citizens had their parliamentary mandates revoked. (The fourth representative, Čedomir Mirković, had been dismissed from the party four days earlier after accepting a ministerial position in the federal government.) Stefanović discovered his expulsion on 17 August when a SPO delegate told him that the assembly had accepted his "resignation." He said that he was not surprised that the SPS and JUL, "in their good old Bolshevik custom, would commit such a fraud and forgery.""ND izbačena iz Skupštine SRJ, , Glas javnosti, 23 February 2010, accessed 2 May 2026.
DOS representative In 2000, New Democracy joined the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's continued rule. DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, and Milošević subsequently fell from power on 5 October 2000, a watershed moment in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics.
Stefanović led the DOS list for Zaječar in the 2000 Yugoslavian parliamentary election, which took place concurrently with the presidential vote, and was elected when the list won two out of four mandates.Izborna lista za Veće građana Savezne skupštine, , Democratic Opposition of Serbia, 2000, accessed 2 May 2026.ИЗБОРИ 2000: ВЕЋЕ РЕПУБЛИКА И ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (2000), p. 54."Ko su poslanici" , Vreme, 28 September 2000, accessed 10 November 2021. The DOS won the federal election in Serbia and subsequently formed a coalition government with the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro (SNP CG). Stefanović again served as a government supporter. During this time, he was a vice-president of New Democracy.Borba, 22 December 2001, p. 3.
Stefanović praised the Serbian ministry of internal affairs for arresting Slobodan Milošević without any loss of life on 31 March 2001. In a written statement, he referred to Milošević's time in power as "the darkest period in the history of the Serbian people, in which misery, violence and fear were the main characteristics of the rule of that man and his dark oligarchy."Borba, 2 April 2001, p. 3.
In August 2001, Stefanović submitted a proposal for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In so doing, he said, "We want to be an equal part of the developed democratic world. In order to become that, we must immediately start making decisive strategic decisions, one of the most important of which would be the one on joining NATO."Borba, 2 August 2001, p. 3.
Stefanović was the leader of Yugoslavia's parliamentary friendship group with Bulgaria in this period. In January 2002, he held talks at the federal assembly with Bulgaria's ambassador.Borba, 24 January 2002, p. 2.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was reconstituted as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in February 2003. The new country had a unicameral parliament whose members were chosen via indirect election from the republican parliaments of Serbia and Montenegro; only sitting members of the republican parliaments and members of the outgoing Yugoslavian parliament were eligible to serve. By virtue of its standing in the Serbian parliament, the main branch of the DOS (led by the DS and including New Democracy) had the right to nominate thirty-seven members of the new assembly. Stefanović was chosen as one of the alliance's representatives.PETO VANREDNO ZASEDANjE, 25.02.2003., Otvoreni Parlament, 25 February 2003, accessed 2 May 2026. Shortly thereafter, New Democracy renamed itself as Liberals of Serbia.