Otpor! (Cyrillic: ОТПОР!, in English: Resistance!) is a pro-democracy youth movement in Serbia which has been widely credited for leading the eventually successful struggle to overthrow Slobodan Milošević in 2000.

It was formed in October 1998 as a response to repressive university and media laws that were introduced that year. In the beginning, Otpor had activities at Belgrade University. In the aftermath of NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War, Otpor started a political campaign against the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milošević. This resulted in nationwide police repression against Otpor activists, during which almost 2000 of them were arrested and some of them beaten. During the presidential campaign in September 2000, Otpor launched its "Gotov je" (He's finished) campaign that galvanized Serbian discontent with Milošević and resulted in his defeat. Some students who led Otpor (whose name means "Resistance" in the Serbian language) used Serb translations of Gene Sharp's writings on nonviolent action as a theoretical basis for their campaign.

Following the fall of Milosevic, the movement promised to stay and monitor corruption. However, it scaled back its activities drastically and was a tremendous disappointment to many Serbians. It finally transformed into a political party. The candidate list of "Otpor—Freedom, Solidarity and Justice" led by Čedomir Čupić did poorly, with only 62,116 (1.6%) votes in the Serbian parliamentary election, 2003, which left it out of the parliament (which required a minimum of 5%). It finally merged into the Democratic Party of Boris Tadic in September 2004.

Otpor was instrumental in inspiring and training several other civic youth organizations in Eastern Europe, including Kmara in the Republic of Georgia (itself partly responsible for the downfall of Eduard Shevardnadze), Pora in Ukraine (which was part of the Orange Revolution), Zubr in Belarus (opposing the president Alexander Lukashenko), and MJAFT! in Albania.

See also

• Liberal revolutionary movements in post-communist Eastern Europe

External links

• Otpor website
• Otpor: the youths who booted Milosevic
• Bringing Down a Dictator: Otpor
• From Dictatorship to Democracy, by Gene Sharp (Serbian, English)