The SNS was an ethnic Serb party that promoted the rights of the Serb ethnic group against what it sees as state-sponsored discrimination. Unlike the pro-federalist Socialist People's Party of Montenegro (SNP) which is left-oriented (being social-democratic), the SNS is focused primarily on representing the interests of Serb people in Montenegro around a center-right cultural conservative program. It presented itself as one of the successors to the old People's Party in the founded in 1906 in the Kingdom of Montenegro, alongside the current People's Party of Montenegro.
Its platform consisted of protection of the ethnic Serb community in the smaller republic against what it sees as the apartheid-like policies of the government of Milo Đukanović whom it has vehemently opposed since its creation. The SNS also supported a restoration of tighter relations between Serbia and Montenegro in conjunction with Euro-Atlantic integrations.