Narodna was formed in October 2017 after Vuk Jeremić re-organised the People's Movement of Serbia (NPS), a political party led by Miroslav Aleksić.

It cooperated with Dragan Đilas and the Movement of Free Citizens and Serbian Left, with whom Narodna took part in the 2018 Belgrade City Assembly election and won 19% of the popular vote.

Narodna then joined the Alliance for Serbia (SZS), a coalition formed by Đilas, which organised mass anti-government protests after the physical attack on Borko Stefanović in November 2018.

Previously supportive of the accession of Serbia to the European Union, it has shifted towards Eurosceptic positions and it declares itself to be in favour of military neutrality.

Following his unsuccessful bid in an attempt to replace Ban Ki-moon as United Nations Secretary-General in late 2016, Vuk Jeremić, the former minister of foreign affairs of Serbia,[1] announced in January 2017 that he would run in the April 2017 Serbian presidential election.

[5] Jeremić received support from Dijana Vukomanović, a former member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, and Siniša Kovačević, a playwright.

[6][7] Miroslav Aleksić, the leader of the People's Movement of Serbia (NPS), offered Jeremić to not form a party, but to re-organise his instead under a different name.

[13] Following the formation, Narodna began cooperating with the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG), a political organisation led by Saša Janković.

[14][15] Together with PSG and the Serbian Left (LS), Narodna announced in January 2018 that Dragan Đilas would be their joint mayoral candidate for the 2018 Belgrade City Assembly election.

[23][24] After the physical attack on the leader of LS, Borko Stefanović, in November 2018, SzS organised mass anti-government protests.

[67][68] A month later, after a closed session of the party's main board, news media alleged that there was a dispute between Aleksić and Jeremić.

[72][73] Jovanović claimed that "it would represent a conflict of interest within the party" (to predstavlja određenu vrstu sukoba interesa unutar partije) if Aleksić remained president of the executive board.

[76][78] Aleksić announced the reconstitution of NPS with Novaković, Đorđe Stanković, Slavica Radovanović, and the councillors in the City Assembly of Belgrade.

[80] Miloš Bešić, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of University of Belgrade, has assessed that the split harmed the party and its reputation.

[81] Shortly before the 2023 leadership election, the Šabac-based "Awakening" organisation, led by Dušan Tufegdžić and Vladimir Terzić, merged into Narodna.

[95] At the founding assembly in October 2017, Narodna stated its support for "military neutrality, independent institutions, depoliticisation of the Security Intelligence Agency, and the adoption of the law on lustration" (vojna neutralnost zemlje, nezavisne institucije... depolitizaciju aparata službi bezbednosti u Srbiji, kao i potreba usvajanja zakona o lustraciji).

[107] Aleksić, who left Narodna in 2023, was a member seen as a moderate who is in favour of creating a coalition with pro-European parties and unlike Jeremić, is rather centered on anti-corruption rhetoric.

[111] Narodna began as a pro-European party and was supportive of the accession of Serbia to the European Union, although it later shifted to more Eurosceptic positions.

[105][112][113] In a Heinrich Böll Foundation report written by Spasojević, and professors Slobodan Cvejić, Dragan Stanojević, and Bojan Todosijević, Narodna has been also described as a less "European Union enthusiastic party".

[14] Vladimir Gajić, the president of Narodna, has criticised the European Union, claiming that it leads an "imperialist policy in the Balkans" (imperijalnu politiku na Balkanu).

[117] Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Narodna has voiced its opposition to sanctioning Russia,[118][119] but it has also supported a discussion about it in the National Assembly.

[123] However since then, Narodna has "remained on the sideline, while Dveri, NDSS, SSZ, and Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia cooperated more intensively", despite their similar positions regarding Kosovo.

[142] In the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Narodna was represented by Jovanović, who sat in the European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance (EC/DA).

[143] Narodna made an announcement when Jovanović joined the EC/DA in October 2023, stating that "many friends of Serbia who understand our position regarding Kosovo and Metohija" are part of the group; they named far-right Brothers of Italy and French National Rally parties as examples.