Women remain stubbornly outnumbered in Serbia’s parliament
More than 750 members of parliament have passed through Serbia’s National Assembly in the last ten years. The Center for Investigative Reporting of Serbia (CINS) has produced a breakdown of who they were. How many were women? What is the parliament’s age structure? And which parts of Serbia do the MPs come from?
© EDJNet
The National Assembly, Serbia’s unicameral legislature, has long been dominated by men. Previous CNIS analyses have made this clear.
Back in 2020, Serbia’s electoral law was amended in an effort to increase the representation of women on party lists, and thus in the National Assembly. At least 40% of every party list must now be composed of women. Earlier versions of the law had mandated one woman for every three candidates, or 33%.
Alas, this rule has not significantly changed the make-up of the National Assembly. In the two parliaments formed after the amendment, female MPs have remained very much in the minority.
For years CINS has monitored the remuneration of Serbian MPs, including salary and expenses. In 2020 we published this data in a report, “How Much Does an MP Cost?”, in which citizens could check the figures for the 2016-19 period.
The law entitles MPs to certain benefits. For instance, if they are not from Belgrade, the parliament will pay their lodging expenses (in a hotel with less than five stars, or in a rental apartment). It will also reimburse them for fuel if they come in their own car, and provides free parking in three public garages for the duration of parliamentary sessions.
But we discovered that the MPs are also refunded for expenses “on their honour”. In particular, deputies who drove to Belgrade for parliamentary sessions were found to be justifying their fuel expenses with simple signed statements rather than actual receipts.
In the last ten years, by far the most MPs came from Belgrade (Serbia’s parliament is elected by proportional representation from a single country-wide constituency). Men were dominant, making up about 63% of the Belgradian deputies. For 20 other towns, the numbers were tied. Those who participated in more than one parliament were counted only once.
Even in the largest parties, male MPs outnumber female MPs. The situation is slightly changed in the current parliament: the Socialist Party (SPS), the Social Democratic Party (SDPS) and the Democratic Party (DS) sent an equal number of male and female MPs to the parliamentary benches in 2024.
Another quirk is noticeable: there were more young MPs in the 2020 parliament than in others. In that year, the list of President Aleksandar Vučić also included young politicians such as Lav-Grigorije Pajkić, Nevena Đurić, and Luka Kebara – all still active in the ranks of the ruling party today. That situation was only temporary: in the last two parliaments, young MPs made up less than a fifth of the parliamentary body.
Read about Brussels MEPs in the research of the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet).
Translated by Voxeurop
Original source: https://www.cins.rs/grafika-zene-i-dalje-u-manjini-u-parlamentu/.
