Socialist Party of Serbia (Political party, Serbia)

Socijalisticka partija Srbije - SPS

Last modified: 2016-08-13 by ivan sache
Keywords: socialist party of serbia | yugoslav united left |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

Flag of the Socialist Party of Serbia - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 2 February 2009

• Flag of the SPS
• Flag of the SPS, 1992-2003
  • Unofficial flags
• Flag of the SPS, 1990-1992
• Yugoslav United Left (Jugoslovenska udruzena levica)

See also:

• Serbia

Flag of the SPS

Article 4 of the current statutes of the SPS, adopted during its Sixth Congress held on 18 January 2003 in Belgrade, say:

The symbol of the Socialist Party of Serbia shall be a stylized red-blue-white rose.
The flag of the Socialist Party of Serbia shall be red with the Party emblem in the centre.
The ceremonial flag of the SPS shall be white with the Party emblem in the centre.
The emblem of the Party shall have the letters "SPS" or "Socialist Party of Serbia" inscribed below the Party symbol.

The ceremonial flag seems to have never been used so far and possibly there are no existing copies of it. Only the "ordinary" one appears to be used. The emblem is actually placed on a white square in the centre of the flag, a detail not specified by the Statutes, but probably added to the design so as to make the emblem better visible against the red field.

The first appearance of this flag that I have recorded was in November 2003, during the campaign for the parliamentary elections which took place next month. In one TV-debate during the campaign, Ivica Dačić, the then Chairman of the Main Board of the party (and current party President), officially announced that this was the new official flag of the SPS.
The flag replaced the previous one very slowly and there have never been many of its copies in use. Along with it, unofficial flags with the emblem in the canton and party name inscribed in the lower fly were also used; these either had white field and black inscription (see above) or red field and white inscription. The last of these has replaced the official one almost completely for some time, but the red flag with the emblem on a white square remains the official flag and is recognized as such by the party opponents as well: in July and August 2008, during the protests against the arrest and extradition of Radovan Karadžić, former President of Republika Serbska, a copy of this flag was carried, turned upside-down, and burned down by the protesters in front of the SPS headquaters in Belgrade, as a protest against the "treason" committed by this party (the party President is currently the First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Minister of Interior, so he is held responsible for the action as such).

Tomislav Todorović, 31 January 2009

Flag of the SPS, 1992-2003

Flag of the SPS, 1992-2003 - Image by Ivan Sarajčić & Tomislav Todorović, 31 January 2009

Article 4 of the statutes of the party, adopted during its Second Congress held on 23-24 October 1992 in Belgrade, say:

The symbol of the Socialist Party of Serbia shall be a red rose.
The flag of the Socialist Party of Serbia shall be the Serbian tricoloured flag with the Party emblem.
The emblem of the Party shall have the letters "SPS" inscribed below the Party symbol.

Mark Sensen, 10 June 2000

The light gray part of the logotype should actually be white, with a black fimbriation, but is usually shown as here, probably to make it more visible against a white background when the logotype is used as a free-standing emblem. The colours of the logotype are consequently those of the Serbian national flag.

Tomislav Todorović, 31 January 2009

Unofficial flag

Unofficial flag of the SPS - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 25 April 2015

The offficial flag was frequently attacked by the opponents of the party as a violation of the state Constitution, which forbade deriving flags from the national flag by adding any charges to it.
A new flag was introduced in the campaign for parliamentary election in 1993. It was white, with the party logo in canton and the party name in lower fly, inscribed in black in three rows, each row underlined with a line in one of national flag colors; the "white" line was actually silver gray, otherwise it would not have been visible on the white field. For some time, flags with this design replaced the tricolor flags almost completely, but they never gained any official status and the tricolor flag, which remained the official one until late 2003, was reintroduced several times, only to be replaced with the white unofficial flag every time in the same manner, due to repeated accusations against the SPS. There were some variations regarding the proportions, relative position of the charges, applied typeface and color shades, but the original design was with proportions 2:3 and charges arranged as shown above. Many of flags with this design, including its variants, have remained in use until the present day.

Unofficial flag of the SPS, two designs - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 25 April 2015

In the campaign for parliamentary election in 2003, white unofficial flags were accompanied with those with the red field and white inscription. On these flags, the white line underlining the bottom row of text was indeed white. The red parts of the logo and the red line underlining the top row of text were either shown in a darker shade of color, or fimbriated white, so as to be made visible on red field. Their first appearance which I have recorded was in November 2003, along with the official party flag with a red field. The unofficial red flag with red charges fimbriated white was also the only flag of the SPS which I have had seen in real life, in August 2004, during the campaign for provincial and local elections which took place in October the same year. In later years, a number of variations in design appeared for both of these flags, in the same manner as had happened with the white flags, and they also remained in use until the present day, having been even more used than the official design.

Tomislav Todorović, 25 April 2015

Flag of the SPS, 1990-1992

Flag of the SPS, 1990-1992
Left, as used - Image by Mark Sensen & Tomislav Todorović, 3 April 2006
Right, as prescribed by the party statutes - Image by Mark Sensen, 10 June 2000

The flag which the SPS used in real life from 1990 to 1992 has differed from its description in the party statutes (see below), as it was not charged with the party symbol (red five-pointed star with the border in colours of Serbian flag), but with the party emblem, which differed from the symbol by addition of party name initials SPS, in white Cyrillic letters (СПС), in centre of the red star. (Actually, the symbol has never appeared either on the flags or as the stand-alone sign.) The fimbriation, which separated outermost red border of the emblem from the same-coloured background, was not specified by the statutes, but was always gold.
The flag was officially abolished in 1992, but its existing copies were kept in use until as late as 1997, when they were seen on the TV for the last time.

Tomislav Todorović, 3 April 2006

Article 4 of the statutes of the party, adopted during its First Congress held on 16 July 1990 in Belgrade, say:

The symbol of the Party shall be a red five-pointed star with a three-colour flag of Serbia in the background.
The Party shall have its flag and emblem.
The flag shall be red with a Party symbol in the upper left corner.
The emblem of the Party shall have the letters "SPS" inscribed in the centre of the Party symbol.

Mark Sensen, 10 June 2000

Yugoslav United Left (Jugoslovenska udruzena levica)

Flag of the Yugoslav United Left - Image by Ivan Sarajčić, 28 December 1998

The party was founded in 1994 by fusion of 19 small leftist parties. Since 2004, the party has been completely inactive, but it nominally existed until 2010, when it was erased from the register of political parties for not having re-registered as requested by the new Law.
The flag of the party was white with a stylized blue-white-red bird and the letters "JUL" in the middle.