The Independent Democratic Party of Serbia (Serbian: Самостална Демократска странка Србије|Samostalna Demokratska stranka Srbije, Samostalni DSS) was a conservative political party in Serbia that existed from 2015 to 2020.
The Samostalni DSS was formed in 2015 following a split in the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). Its leader was Andreja Mladenović, who served as deputy mayor of Belgrade from 2014 to 2018 and was briefly a parliamentarian 2016.
The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its allies won a majority victory in the 2014 Belgrade City Assembly election with sixty-three seats out of 110. The DSS finished in fourth place with nine seats and subsequently joined the SNS in a coalition government. Andreja Mladenović, who had led the DSS group in the city assembly in the previous term, became Belgrade's deputy mayor with SNS support.[1] [2]
In July 2015, DSS leader Sanda Rašković Ivić expelled Mladenović and six members of the party's Belgrade assembly group on the grounds that they were attempting to turn the DSS into a satellite of the Progressive Party.[3] The expelled members described this decision as unjust and contrary to party policy and established the Samostalni DSS with Mladenović as leader. They initially identified as a fraction within the DSS and said they would work for the party's renewal.[4]
The Samostalni DSS later became a distinct party, and Mladenović was formally chosen as leader at a founding convention in October 2015.[5] Branches were established in several municipalities throughout Serbia, and delegates in some municipal assemblies joined the party.
Mladenović established an alliance between the Samostalni DSS and the SNS at the republic level and in Belgrade.[6] [7] He was himself included in the tenth position on the Progressive Party's coalition electoral list in the 2016 Serbian parliamentary election; this was tantamount to election, and he was indeed elected when the list won a majority victory with 131 out of 250 mandates.[8] His term was brief. He could not hold a dual mandate as a national assembly member and deputy mayor of Belgrade and so resigned his seat on 3 October 2016.[9] [10]
The Samostalni DSS seems to have become largely inactive as an organization by 2017, although Mladenović was re-elected to the Belgrade assembly in the 2018 Belgrade City Assembly election. Formally, his endorsement was from the SNS.[11] [12] He was briefly the acting mayor of Belgrade in May–June 2018 before becoming an assistant to new mayor Zoran Radojičić.[13]
In November 2019, the Samostalni DSS announced a merger with the Movement for the Development of Serbia and the National Democratic Political Council to form the Independent Serbian Party.[14] The merger was made official in February 2020 with Mladenović as the party's first leader.[15]