Politics of Serbia · Lablypedia

The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Serbia as a "flawed democracy" in 2024 and ranked country 64th in the world on its Democracy Index. The Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index 2025 report characterizes the country as a "moderate autocracy". Freedom House also considers Serbia to be "partly free" that is democratically backsliding as in recent years the ruling Serbian Progressive Party has steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties, that is also putting legal and extralegal pressure on independent media, political opposition, and civil society organizations in the country. A 2026 IRI poll found the main political issues in Serbia included corruption, political polarization and cost of living.

Legal framework

Following Montenegro's secession and the subsequent dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006, Serbia restored its independence and adopted a new constitution, which replaced the constitution adopted in 1990. The proposed text of the constitution was adopted by the National Assembly on 30 September 2006 and put to a vote in a referendum which was held on 28–29 October 2006. After 53% of the electorate voted in favor of the proposed constitution, it was officially adopted on 8 November 2006. A constitutional referendum was held again on 16 January 2022, in which voters decided on amending the constitution in the provisions related to the expanding independence of the judiciary. The "yes" option prevailed over the "no" option in the referendum, although turnout was reported to be the lowest since 1990, at only 30% of voters in total. Constitutional changes were adopted by the National Assembly on 9 February.

The legal system of Serbia is a civil law system, historically influenced by Germanic and, to a lesser degree, French law, as well as Yugoslav law, but in the process of the accession of Serbia to the European Union, the legal system is being completely harmonized with European Union law.

6 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

Executive

The President of the Republic (Serbian: Председник Републике, romanized: Predsednik Republike) is the head of state. The president is directly elected and serves a five-year term and is limited by the Constitution to a maximum of two terms. The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, has the procedural duty of appointing the Prime Minister with the consent of the National Assembly through a majority vote of all deputies, and has certain influence on defense and foreign policy. The most recent presidential election was held on 3 April 2022 and was won by Aleksandar Vučić. Although constitutionally the president has little governing power and is primarily a ceremonial position, the current president Aleksandar Vučić de facto serves under a semi-presidential system.

Executive power is mainly exercised by the Prime Minister (Serbian: Председник Владе, romanized: Predsednik Vlade), who heads a cabinet (Serbian: Владa, romanized: Vlada). The prime minister is chosen by the National Assembly on the proposal of the president of the Republic, who names the designate after consultations with leaders of all parliamentary parties. The prime minister is responsible for presenting his/her agenda to the National Assembly as well as proposing the ministers to fill the cabinet posts in his/her government. The government is considered elected if it has been elected by a majority vote of all deputies in the National Assembly.

Legislature

Legislative power is vested in the unicameral parliament known as the National Assembly (Serbian: Народна скупштина, romanized: Narodna skupština), which is composed of 250 proportionally elected deputies by secret ballot. The powers of the legislature include enactment and amendment of the constitution, enactment of laws, adoption of the state budget, declarations of war and peace, calling and conducting referendums and elections, appointments and relief of office of independent public authorities, supervising the work of the Government and holders of independent public authorities. Decisions are made based on a majority vote if more than half of the deputies are present, except in cases of constitutional issues.

Judiciary

The judiciary of Serbia is a three-tiered system of courts with the Supreme Court (Serbian: Врховни суд, romanized: Vrhovni sud) standing at the highest tier. The Supreme Court is the highest court of appeal and court of cassation for both types of jurisdiction that exist (courts of general jurisdiction and courts of special jurisdiction).

The Ministry of Justice handles the administration of judiciary, including paying salaries and constructing new courthouses, as well as administering the prison system.

Parties and elections

Serbia uses the multi-party system, with numerous political parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, this results in the formation of coalition governments. Elections are held on the parliamentary, provincial and local level, and are scheduled every four years, while presidential elections are scheduled every five years.

The first political parties and organizations were established in the first half of the 19th century, but they were officially registered as political parties in 1881. The People's Radical Party (NRS) dominated Serbian and Yugoslav politics from the late 1880s until 1928. Serbia was a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) from 1918 until 1941. During the period of German occupation the government was independent and was mostly run by military personnel, right-wing politicians and former members of the fascist Yugoslav National Movement (ZBOR). After World War II, Serbia was re-established as a one-party state and as one of the constituent republics of the communist Yugoslavia, which was headed by the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS). After the dissolution of communist Yugoslavia in 1992, Serbia became a constituent part of Serbia and Montenegro and until 2000, it was under the dominant rule of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). In the first decade of the 21st century, political landscape was dominated by the coalitions of center-left and center-right parties, the largest among them being Democratic Party (DS) and Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). Since 2012, the populist and neo-liberal Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has been the ruling party establishing dominant power in Serbian politics.

2023 Parliamentary Elections

International Organizations

Serbia is a member state of numerous international organizations: UN, ICC, IMF, WB, OSCE, CoE, BSEC, PfP, CEFTA, SECI, CEI.

Serbia applied to join the European Union (EU) in 2009 and has been a candidate for membership since 2012, along with nine other states. Serbia is the largest country in Southeast Europe seeking entry into the EU.

Status of Kosovo

Kosovo unilaterally self-proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008, a move which Serbia strongly rejects. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state and continues to claim it as the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. However, differences and disputes remain. Initially there were no relations between the two; but in the following years there has been increased dialogue and cooperation between the two sides.

Though Kosovo is not a member state of United Nations, it remains a partially recognized country, with 104 out of 193 UN member states recognizing its independence. According to the international law, and Resolution 1244, which ended the Kosovo War it is claimed by Serbia as the autonomous province.

Negotiations facilitated by the European Union resulted in the 2013 Brussels Agreement on the normalization of relations between the governments of Kosovo and Serbia. The agreement pledged both sides not to block the other in the EU accession process, defined the structure of the police and local elections in all parts of Kosovo, and also established the proposal of the Community of Serb Municipalities.

The United States-mediated diplomatic talks agreed on the interconnection of air, train and road traffic, while both parties signed the 2020 agreement on the normalization of economic relations.

Both parties agreed to a proposed normalization agreement in EU mediated dialogue in 2023 and through further negotiations accepted a roadmap and timescale for its implementation the following month.