Boris Tadić served as president of Republic of Serbia from 2004 to 2012. He lost to Tomislav Nikolić, on elections that are portrayed in media as turning point of political landscape. Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) took, in next few years, all major positions. In the meantime, Tadić left Democratic Party (DS) and created new political organisation, firstly called New Democratic Party, but later renamed to Social-Democratic Party (SDS). For many, Tadić is to blame for return of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) from the dead, a party that was overthrown on fifth of October, 2000. SPS, both with SNS, are what we have today – self-calling “reformed” parties that will take Serbia to EU. Our former president is now desperately trying to stay relevant, and succeeds in that only between margins of 4-6 percent of approval rating.
Boris Tadić was never creative enough to produce alternative. DS, in time when he was their president and of the Republic in the same time, fought for EU, but, as years passed, failed to show stable progress. He made a marionette out of most important political institutions in this country – prime minister. Appointing politically weak Miroslav Cvetković and congregating power in his presidential cabinet, Tadić laid ground for some of the word problems we are facing today with Aleksandar Vučić. We are witnessing polished way of ruling system – one-man show that controls media and uses institutions as private property.
Now, he is proposing that we need to vote against Vučić and pro-democratic and pro-western and pro-pro, cause Vučić is not “pro-” but against all values that we should care about. Only, Tadić, as before, doesn’t tell us what is Vučić doing wrong that he didn’t already did himself.
Loss of the presidential elections looked almost like a natural outcome. In that light, it was one of the better moments in democracy of 21st century Serbia. But, we are now left to wonder and discuss how and why we let those we believed in pushed big part of society into political abstinence.
* Featured image was taken from here.
This text was translated to English by me when I was 9.
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[…] But, he will have tough time demonstrating his ideas. There is not much time for the Party, either. With only few delegates in parliament it’s struggling to find its place in unified opposition movement. And that sort of climate is already populated with used-up leaders. […]