As a political party .
Vojislav Šešelj was a member of the
League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SKBiH) and a lecturer at the
University of Sarajevo in the early 1980s. In 1981, he was expelled from SKBiH for allegedly promoting "nationalist and anarcho-liberal ideas". Later, in 1984, he was jailed for authoring a manifesto calling for Yugoslavia's restructuring and the establishment of a
Greater Serbian republic. He was condemned to four years in
Zenica jail, but only spent 22 months. He gained significant attention in
Belgrade, and following his release, he grew close to writer
Vuk Drašković. Šešelj founded the Serbian Freedom Movement in January 1990, however, it was short-lived. In March, it merged with Drašković's faction of the
Serbian National Renewal to create the
Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO). Šešelj and Drašković were, however, unable to cooperate, leading to Šešelj's departure from SPO in May. Šešelj established the Serbian Chetnik Movement (SČP) as a political party on 18 June 1990. However, the party was denied registration due to its open connections with
World War II-era
Chetniks. of the
Liberal Party defected to SČP shortly after its founding. On 25 June,
Slobodan Milošević, the president of Serbia, proposed a
referendum to proclaim a new constitution. In response, an opposition protest was organised outside the building of
Radio Television Belgrade, where Šešelj gave a speech critical of the government. Opposition parties argued that the referendum should be postponed until after the
first multiparty elections. The new constitution was accepted by voters, with a turnout of 78%. In September, SČP organised a protest after being denied registration in the political party registry. Opposition parties later organised another protest, this time to present their demands for better election campaign conditions. At the end of the protest, Šešelj and his SČP attempted to hijack the stage. SČP attempted to take part in the 1990 elections but was barred from it by authorities. During the election campaign, Šešelj was sentenced to prison for violating public order and peace. Following his release, he filed his candidacy in the presidential election. He ran as an
independent candidate. Shortly thereafter, on 23 October, he was briefly imprisoned again for attempting to recruit volunteers for the
Log Revolution in Croatia. His campaign was marked by criticism of the opposition parties, particularly SPO. He also promised to bring "20 of the biggest Serbian traitors" to trial, including dissident
Milovan Djilas. Political scientist Robert Thomas wrote that Šešelj's prison sentences in October 1990 helped him achieve celebrity status in the elections. Ultimately, he finished fifth in the presidential election. In the second round of the parliamentary election, he declined to join the newly established
United Opposition of Serbia coalition, instead personally endorsing
Democratic Party candidates. After the elections, the
People's Radical Party (NRS) experienced internal conflict as a result of its failure to gain any representation in the
National Assembly of Serbia.
Tomislav Nikolić, the party's vice-president, proposed merging the party with SČP to form a new political party. Šešelj, however, faced resistance inside SČP, but with the help of Jovan Glamočanin, the merging proceeded. SČP merged with NRS on 23 February 1991 to create the
Serbian Radical Party (SRS), with Šešelj as its president.
Participation in Yugoslav Wars After the creation of SRS, SČP was appropriated as its paramilitary unit throughout the
Yugoslav Wars, during which they committed killings of civilians. It has also been defined as a private army of SRS operating in the
Republic of Serbian Krajina. Also known as the
Šešeljevci (English: Šešelj's men), the paramilitary was active in the Eastern Slavonia front of Croatia in March 1991. It took part in the
Battle of Borovo Selo, where they killed 12 Croatian policemen. Beginning in March 1992, SČP was stationed in
Zvornik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the purpose of ethnic cleansing the town. Šešelj there collaborated with the
Serb Volunteer Guard (SDG) and
White Eagles to raid homes and kill Muslims. In
Bijeljina and
Doboj, SČP cooperated with SDG in armed conflicts. This campaign marked the beginning of the
Bosnian War. Besides their cooperation with other paramilitaries,
Šešeljevci were also friendly with the
Yugoslav People's Army. In the Eastern Slavonia front and Bosnian War, the
Šešeljevci committed crimes against Croats and Muslims, including murder, torture, robbery, and sexual assault. The
Šešeljevci had 30,000 volunteers. They were noted for wearing black fur hats with Serbian cockades, or military berets with a skull or the Serbian flag. They could have also been identified by their cross-shaped ammunition belts. At different times, Šešelj both supported and condemned the paramilitary unit. The
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) concluded that "Šešelj exercised ideological and moral authority over the
Šešeljevci sent to the front by his politico-military organisation. On 28 April 1994, SRS announced the dissolution of SČP and the integration of its local chapters into SRS. In the announcement, Šešelj also disavowed SČP as a paramilitary force.
Legacy SRS, the successor of SČP, has promoted similar ideologies to SČP, including
Greater Serbian ideology and
ultranationalism. The party advocated for the establishment of a Serbian state that would span up to the
Karlobag-
Karlovac-
Virovitica line, which eventually became an equivalent term to Greater Serbia. At the founding assembly, Šešelj declared that "we are prepared, though, for a bloodbath should it be necessary, but only for the sake of the Serbian lands, territories and people". The party was also sympathetic towards Milošević's regime; in return, the party was positively received in pro-government media. Due to his role in the Yugoslav Wars, Šešelj surrendered to ICTY in 2003. His trial started in 2007, but was suspended in 2009 and continued later in 2010. The trial ended in 2013 and Šešelj was granted a provisional release in 2014 due to his worsening health, after which he returned to Serbia. He then led SRS into the
2016 Serbian parliamentary election, in which the party won 8% of the popular vote. == Ideology and platform ==