Serbian communist organisations take different paths ahead of parliamentary elections

NKPJ campaigns through the Russian Party list

NKPJ issued a new election appeal on 22 October under the headline “Vote for the Russian Party, Vote for the Communists.” Four candidates from NKPJ and its youth organisation, the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ), are standing on the list Russian Party – Serbia in BRICS – Slobodan Nikolić, which appears as number seven on the ballot.

The party says its decision to participate through the Russian Party reflects agreement on a range of domestic and international issues. These include opposition to Serbian membership of NATO and the European Union, closer cooperation with Russia and BRICS countries, opposition to sanctions against Moscow, and the defence of Serbia’s territorial integrity. They also cite shared commitments to antifascist traditions.

In an interview published by Danas on 3 October, NKPJ executive secretary Aleksandar Đenić outlined the party’s domestic programme, including stronger workers’ rights, changes to labour legislation, free education, opposition to the Rio Tinto lithium project, the abolition of private enforcement agents and greater state control over strategic economic sectors.

Đenić also explicitly rejected the idea that cooperation with the Russian Party amounted to support for the governing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). He said NKPJ opposed the government’s policies and described the electoral arrangement as cooperation based on specific shared positions.

A critical stance towards the student movement

The interview also highlighted NKPJ’s differences with the student movement, which has become a central force in the opposition to the government. Although Đenić acknowledged that the protests originated in legitimate public anger, he criticised their political direction, describing the student list’s demands as liberal and its organisational methods as incompatible with communist principles.

NKPJ argues that political struggle should be organised around clearly defined leadership, responsibility and working-class interests rather than the plenary-based decision-making used by student activists. The party therefore rejects the student-backed electoral list as a political alternative, despite the participation of some left-wing groups in the wider movement.

Communists of Serbia support the student-backed list

Communists of Serbia have taken the opposite electoral position. In a statement reported on 27 September, the organisation endorsed Students – Students Win (Studenti pobeđuju), the student-backed list registered as number three on the ballot, and called on its members and supporters to vote for it.

The organisation said the student movement’s programme contained an anticapitalist current and highlighted proposals concerning the fight against corruption, social policy, workers’ rights, education and support for young people. It also criticised the government led by Aleksandar Vučić, as well as the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Movement of Socialists, arguing that these parties did not adequately represent workers’ interests.

Communists of Serbia presented the student-backed list as the clearest electoral challenge to the incumbent authorities.