October 27, 2026, The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) states that the change of government following the parliamentary elections held on October 25 will not improve, even in the slightest, the very poor position of Serbia’s working people.
The reason is simple. The bourgeois, pro-imperialist government of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its coalition partners has been replaced by the bourgeois, pro-imperialist opposition “Student List.” This reactionary formation is the successor to the anti-people policies of the notorious Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), which Western imperialism installed in power in Serbia following the counterrevolutionary coup of October 5, 2000, through which the remaining achievements of our country’s socialist construction were dismantled.
Accordingly, the working people of Serbia have nothing to celebrate, as an anti-people government is being replaced by an anti-people opposition.
The SNS governed for 14 years, diligently continuing the reactionary process of privatization initiated by DOS in 2001, distributing subsidies to foreign companies so that they could generate ever-greater superprofits, and ensuring that corporate profit tax remained the lowest in our region. The SNS relieved private employers of a range of parafiscal obligations, thereby reducing the flow of funds into the state budget intended for healthcare and education. It tightened the conditions for granting sick leave and, until its very last day in power, stubbornly refused to declare Sunday a non-working day for employees in the retail sector. Serbia is, in fact, the only country in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) where retail workers are required to work on Sundays in order to generate profits for their capitalist bosses. During the SNS government, amendments to the Labour Law were adopted that were entirely anti-worker, continuing the transformation of labour legislation in favour of exploitative big capital that had begun under DOS.
In practice, the SNS government ignored the occupation of Kosovo and Metohija, Serbia’s southern province, and the terror inflicted upon the Serbian people in that territory by the Albanian separatist puppet regime serving pro-imperialist interests. The SNS continued the reactionary process of bringing Serbia into the European Union, a prison of nations whose objective is to make the rich even richer and the poor even poorer. Furthermore, the Serbian Armed Forces continue their cooperation with NATO under the “Partnership for Peace” programme, despite the fact that NATO is the principal military instrument of Western imperialism. NATO dismantled the SFRY and provoked a bloody fratricidal war across its territory, carried out aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, occupied Kosovo and Metohija, and subsequently dismantled the common state of Serbia and Montenegro. Everything DOS did during its ten years of reactionary rule, the SNS continued from 2012 to the present day.
At the same time, through its propaganda machinery, the government irritated the public with fairy tales about a high standard of living and average salaries of approximately €1,000, even though, in reality, such earnings remain among the lowest in Europe. It must also be noted that half of the country’s employees can only dream of receiving that salary, as they earn less than €794 per month, the median wage. From January, the minimum wage will be €600. Just how inadequate these amounts are is demonstrated by the fact that the average consumer basket costs €943, while the minimum consumer basket costs €485, a figure that will increase by January. The government led by Aleksandar Vučić also boasted of record-high pensions, yet from January next year the average pension will amount to only approximately €520. These are all reasons why the Serbian Progressive Party lost power and why its most important coalition partner, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), failed to cross the electoral threshold in the elections that have just concluded.
The period ahead, during which power will be held by the ideological successor to the Democratic Opposition of Serbia—the anti-people “Student List,” led by former Democratic Party officials and supported by all the bourgeois, pro-imperialist parties previously represented in parliament—may prove even worse for the interests of Serbia’s citizens than the SNS government.
The policy of accession to the EU will continue, as will military cooperation with NATO. The occupation of Kosovo and Metohija by Western imperialism will continue to be ignored, while cooperation with friendly China will also be severed under pressure from Brussels. Furthermore, although some leaders of the “Student List” claim that sanctions against Russia will not be imposed, it remains highly questionable whether a consensus on this issue can be reached among the leaders of this reactionary formation.
The NKPJ and its youth organisation, the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ), contested the elections to the National Assembly of Serbia on the Russian Party list. They share common positions with this party on the EU, NATO, cooperation with fraternal Russia and BRICS, and the anti-fascist struggle. The list won 0.2 per cent of the vote, an excellent electoral result considering that it received unequal treatment in the media and had significantly fewer financial resources for its campaign than Serbia’s largest bourgeois, pro-imperialist parties. The votes of communists who supported the list at the call of the NKPJ and SKOJ also contributed to this strong result.
The NKPJ assesses that the election campaign was used to the fullest extent possible to promote the struggle of working people against exploitation and Western imperialism.
The NKPJ takes this opportunity to condemn in the strongest possible terms the so-called “citizens’ assemblies” supporting the “Student List” for their shameless and brutal attack on Informer television, which took place the day after the elections. Although a member of the leadership of our youth and student organisation had previously been subjected to vicious targeting by this television station, which completely ignores the activities of the NKPJ and SKOJ, and whose editorial policy we seriously object to and consider harmful, we will always condemn attacks on people who are at their workplace carrying out their duties. We therefore condemn this attack as well.
Finally, the NKPJ calls upon the working class, the rural proletariat, students, pensioners, young people, the unemployed, Yugoslavs, and the honest intelligentsia to form an electoral front bringing together all progressive, anti-fascist, and left-wing forces in the struggle against the exploitation of other people’s labour and Western imperialism.
Secretariat of the NKPJ
Belgrade,
October 27, 2026.
