Jovanović was New Serbia's secretary-general from 2003 until 2005, when he was elected to the first of two terms as a party vice-president. He became mayor of Topola via a direct election in 2004 and was returned to the position following the local elections of 2008, 2012. Since 2014, he has served as president of the municipal assembly. In December 2007, Jovanović played a prominent role in conjunction with other members of New Serbia and members of the Serbian Radical Party in preventing the B92 program Peščanik from recording an episode at Aranđelovac's House of Culture; the group took control of the microphones at the event and prevented it from starting. This action received considerable attention, including a reference in the United States Department of State's Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2007, which indicates that Jovanović made further threats against B92 in a subsequent interview. Following the action, New Serbia members accused B92 of pursuing an "anti-Serb and anti-Constitutional campaign." B92 responded by suggesting that the campaign was actually motivated by its own frequent criticisms of New Serbia leader Velimir Ilić. In 2009, Jovanović joined other Serbian politicians from across the political spectrum in accusing Croatian authorities of preventing Serbs from returning to the country and from participating in local elections.
Member of Parliament
New Serbia
From 2000 to 2011, Serbian parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties rather than to individual candidates, and the parties were responsible for choosing candidates from their lists to become deputies. Jovanović was included in New Serbia's electoral lists in the 2003 and 2007 parliamentary elections, although he was not included as part of its parliamentary delegation on either occasion. He briefly received a mandate following the 2008 election, in which New Serbia ran on a combined list with the Democratic Party of Serbia, but he resigned after only a month to permit party leader Velimir Ilić to enter the assembly as a replacement. Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that parliamentary mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful lists. New Serbia joined the Serbian Progressive Party's coalition electoral list for the 2012 parliamentary election and maintained its alliance with the Progressives for the 2014 and 2016 campaigns. Jovanović was not a candidate in 2012 but received the ninety-eighth position on the Progressive-led list in 2014 and was elected when it won a majority victory with 158 out of 250 mandates. He received the 107th position in the 2016 and was returned for another term when the list won 131 mandates.
Independent
Velimir Ilić expelled Jovanović from New Serbia in January 2017. This occurred after Ilić said he would withdraw support from the administration of Progressive Party leader Aleksandar Vučić; Jovanović, as a party vice-president, responded that Ilić was entitled to his personal opinions but that the party as a whole remained supportive of the administration. Ilić justified his decision to expel Jovanović on the grounds that the latter had disobeyed the decisions of the party leadership, had made false claims about a diploma, and was compromised because of his involvement in a 2012 car accident. Jovanović rejected these claims and said that Ilić was actually concerned that he could pose a successful challenge for the leadership of the party. At around the same time that Jovanović was expelled from New Serbia, deputies Dubravka Filipovski and Mladen Grujić voluntarily left the party in opposition to Ilić's leadership and his decision to leave Vučić's coalition. All three continued to offer support the Progressive-led administration.
Better Serbia
In June 2017, Jovanović joined with Serbian politicians Miroslav Parović and Vladan Glišić in presenting a right-wing political manifesto. Jovanović argued that the group would offer conservative Serb voters a third choice, distinct from the country's existing political blocs supporting and opposing Aleksandar Vučić's presidency. Shortly after this meeting, he launched a new political party called Better Serbia with himself as the leader. Jovanović is currently a member of the parliamentary committee on spatial planning, transport, infrastructure, and telecommunications; a deputy member of two other committees; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Better Serbia and Healthy Serbia will participate together in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election, and Jovanović received third position on the list.
