Serbian Party Oathkeepers Српска странка Заветници | |
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Abbreviation | SSZ |
President | Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski |
Founded | 15 February 2012 |
Registered | 14 August 2019 |
Split from | Serbian Radical Party |
Headquarters | Terazije 38, Belgrade |
Ideology | |
Political position | Far-right |
Colours | Blue |
National Assembly | 0 / 250 |
Assembly of Vojvodina | 0 / 120 |
City Assembly of Belgrade | 1 / 110 |
Website | |
zavetnici | |
The Serbian Party Oathkeepers (Serbian: Српска странка Заветници, romanized: Srpska stranka Zavetnici, abbr. SSZ), commonly known as just Oathkeepers, is a far-right political party in Serbia. Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski has been the party's president since 2021.
Initially known as Serbian Council Oathkeepers, SSZ was formed in 2012 with Stefan Stamenkovski as its first president. SSZ began its actions by organising protests against the recognition of Kosovo, the Brussels Agreement, and Belgrade Pride parades. SSZ entered electoral politics in 2013 and it participated in the 2014 parliamentary election in which it did not win any seats. They later organised protests opposed to the commemoration of Srebrenica massacre and NATO; they also organised a rally in support of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić. SSZ unsuccessfully sought to win seats in the National Assembly of Serbia and City Assembly of Belgrade up to 2022, when SSZ for the first time gained parliamentary representation. It was in the parliamentary opposition to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). SSZ lost all of its representation in the 2023 elections, in which it contested as part of the National Gathering. After the elections, it aligned itself with SNS, with Đurđević Stamenkovski becoming a government minister in May 2024.
SSZ is an ultranationalist party that pursues sovereignist views towards Kosovo and supports the unification of Serbia and Republika Srpska, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also socially conservative and supports restricting Serbia's immigration system. SSZ supports labelling non-governmental organisations funded from abroad as "foreign agents". An Eurosceptic and anti-NATO party, it is in favour of forging closer relations with Russia and China. It is also opposed to sanctioning Russia in regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. SSZ has closely cooperated with United Russia, the ruling party of Russia, and has also received support from the far-right Alternative for Germany.