Democratic Party (Serbia)
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| Democratic Party | |
|---|---|
| Демократска странка | |
| Demokratska stranka | |
 |
|
| Leader | Boris Tadić |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Headquarters | Krunska 69, Belgrade |
| Political ideology | Social democracy, Pro-European Integration |
| International affiliation | Socialist International |
| European affiliation | Party of European Socialists |
| Colour(s) | Blue, Yellow |
| Website | www.ds.org.rs |
| Also about Serbian politics |
Politics List of political parties Elections |
The Democratic Party (Serbian: Демократска странка, Demokratska stranka, listen ) is the largest center-left political party in Serbia. It presently holds 64 out of 250 seats in the Parliament of Serbia.
It claims continuity of the old Democratic Party founded in 1919 that was active in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and in what respects the international arena, the DS is affiliated to the Socialist International.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Foundation
The Democratic Party (DS) was founded on February 16, 1919 in Sarajevo after the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Independent Radical Party, Reformist Party, Liberal Party and the Serbian part of Croato-Serbian Coallition merged to establish the social-liberal DS. The elected president of the party was Ljubomir Davidović, also a president of the Assembly and a mayor of Belgrade. After his death in 1940, Milan Grol took over the presidency.
The Democratic Party (DS) won the majority of votes in the first elections held in 1920, and was in and out of government (either independently or as part of a coalition) until 1929, when King Alexander abolished the constitution and created a personal dictatorship, changing the name of the country to Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Democratic Party remained in opposition until World War II.
Following the Invasion of Yugoslavia by the allied forces of Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Romania from 6 April to 17 April 1941, Yugoslavia was placed under military occupation. Most of the party leadership fled to the United Kingdom.
In 1945 the leadership returned to Yugoslavia, but the Democratic Party called for a boycott of communist-organized elections in the same year. After elections, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia led by Josip Broz Tito banned the Democratic Party. Its members were persecuted, with many, including Milan Grol, were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms.
[edit] 1990s
In late 1989, a group of 13 intellectuals held a press conference in Belgrade where they announced that the Democratic Party is being formed and invited everyone to join the first opposition party in Serbia. The founding assembly was held on February 3, 1990, in Belgrade. The elected party president was Dragoljub Mićunović.
Members participated in the first anti-government protests in 1990. In elections that year, the party was on ballot in 176 of 250 electoral districts, and won 7 assembly seats. Only several days prior to the elections, a group of 10 members, led by Nikola Milošević, left the party and formed the Serbian Liberal Party. In 1992 a much larger faction led by Vojislav Koštunica, left the party and established the Democratic Party of Serbia.
Zoran Đinđić was the second president of the party, elected at the party conference in January 1994. On 21 February 1997 he was elected Mayor of Belgrade following more than three months of peaceful protest marches by hundreds of thousands of citizens protesting against blatant vote rigging by Slobodan Milošević and his cronies.
[edit] Activity in Republika Srpska
In Republika Srpska, a branch of the Democratic Party was set up to contest the first post-Dayton Accord elections. It was led by Ljubiša Savić, alias Mauzer, leader of the Panthers paramilitary, closely allied with the Tigers of Željko Ražnatović Arkan whom he invited to Bijeljina. [1] During the war his Panthers operated in the Bijeljina area; "I think that Mauzer was the person who was most responsible for the killings and destruction in Bijeljina", Nenad Zafirović told Milošević trial prosecutors. Implicated in crimes against local Muslims, he vowed to a Belgrade newspaper that "Now we fix these, and once we've done with them, we will cross the Drina to deal with the communists and fix them."[2]
His party ran as part of the Democratic Patriotic Bloc led by Predrag Radić, the man blamed for blowing up the Banja Luka mosques. For helping Biljana Plavšić in having Milorad Dodik confirmed premier in January 1998, he was named as chief of Republika Srpska police. He was dismissed not long after for torturing suspects. In June 2000 he was victim of a gangland killing.[3]
In 2002, The DS-RS was led by Gavrilo Antonić, who as of 2008 is the Secretary General of the People's Democratic Party of former RS Premier Mladen Ivanić.
[edit] Recent events
The fall of Slobodan Milošević regime in 2000 occurred after street protests by hundreds of thousands of citizens. Democratic Party was the biggest party of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) that won 64.7% of the votes, getting 176 of 250 seats. In 2003, Zoran Đinđić, the Prime Minister of Serbia, was assassinated. Immediately after the assassination, a state of emergency was declared and the government mounted Operation Sablja. Boris Tadić was elected new president of Democratic Party in 2004. He was nominated for the Serbian presidential elections in the same year, and won it while Democratic party was still in opposition in parliament.
Democratic Party received 915,854 popular votes or 22.71%, and thus won 64 out of 250 seats in parliament in the 2007 elections. Three of its seats went to the Sanjak Democratic Party, which formed a club with DS under Dušan Petrović as president and Milan Marković as vice-president. At the first session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia the party mostly voted to refuse Martti Ahtisaari's proposal for Kosovo's solution.
Boris Tadić was reelected at the Serbian presidential election, 2008.
[edit] Policies
The Democratic Party's program states that:
- They support parliamentary democracy.
- Public administration and public services should be professional and depoliticized. Public service needs to be effective and respectful of its users.
- Government institutions should be cheap to maintain.
- The government should be checked by independent judiciary and independent media.
- They support decentralization of government, both territorially and functionally. Powers should be delegated to self-governing bodies whenever possible. Vojvodina should be truly autonomous.
- Acts of government should be transparent and monitored by the public.
- Participation of the people is essential, but governmental institutions need to be accessible.
- They support European integration.
- Government needs to ensure conditions in which businesses can operate freely.
- They support small and medium businesses, family owned businesses and independent farmers.
- There should be no discrimination based on sex, physical appearance, faith, beliefs or location.
- They support middle class.
- Government needs to invest in education, and transportation, energy and telecommunications infrastructure.
- They support social solidarity.
- Government should maintain welfare programs.
- They encourage creation of unions.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
| Leaders of the Democratic Party (Serbia) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dragoljub Mićunović | Zoran Đinđić | Boris Tadić | ||
