Vojislav Šešelj

He was Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia from 1998 to 2000 and sat in the National Assembly until 2020. In June 2026 he said he might stand in the next presidential election, a candidacy not yet formally proposed by his party.

Career

Šešelj, a jurist, founded the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and has led it since 1991. He was a member of the National Assembly from 1991 to 1998, from 2000 to 2003 and from 2016 to 2020, president of the Zemun municipality from 1996 to 1998, and Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia from 1998 to 2000. He was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in 2003 and his trial began in 2007. In the 2016 parliamentary election the SRS won 23 seats. Today the party is outside parliament.

Positions

Wikipedia describes him as a far-right Serbian nationalist, and notes that he has called himself a chauvinist rather than a fascist. His party's slogans in 2026 include "Radicals win" and "We have one fatherland". In June 2026 he said the possibility of a presidential run was open, that it was not yet official because the party's Central Fatherland Administration had not met, and that he expected the candidacy to be proposed there, according to 021.rs.

Controversies

The UN tribunal (ICTY) Trial Chamber acquitted him of all charges on 31 March 2016. On 11 April 2018 its Appeals Chamber reversed the acquittal in part and convicted him of crimes against humanity: instigating deportation, persecution and other inhumane acts (forcible transfers), based on a speech at Hrtkovci on 6 May 1992 calling for the expulsion of non-Serbs. It sentenced him to ten years, deemed already served in custody. The judgment is final.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · IRMCT · 021.rs · Beta Briefing

Photo: council.gov.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)