Vuk Draškovic
Encyclopedia
Vuk Drašković (born 29 November 1946, Međa, Žitište
, Serbia
, FPR Yugoslavia), leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement
, is a Serbia
n politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and the Minister of Foreign Affairs
of State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia
.
He graduated from the University of Belgrade
's Law School
in 1968. From 1969 to 1980 he worked as a journalist in the Yugoslav
news agency Tanjug
. He was also a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party and worked as the chief of staff of the Yugoslav President Mika Špiljak
. Drašković also wrote several novels.
region village to a family of settlers from Herzegovina
, Vuk was six months old when his mother Stoja died. His father Vidak remarried and had two more sons - Rodoljub and Dragan; and three daughters - Radmila, Tanja and Ljiljana with Dara Drašković, meaning that young Vuk grew up with five half-siblings. Shortly after Vuk's birth, the entire family went back to Herzegovina
where he finished primary school in the village of Slivlje, before secondary school studies in Gacko
. On his father's insistence Drašković considered studying medicine in Sarajevo
; however, the city was too "uptight and cramped" for his liking, so he went to study law in Belgrade
instead.
Between 1969 and 1978, Drašković dabbled in journalism. He first worked for the state newsagency Tanjug
as its African correspondent stationed in Nairobi
, Kenya
, before taking a job as press advisor in the Yugoslav Workers Union Council (SSRNJ). During his time at SSRNJ, Drašković also spent some time as the personal secretary to the organisation's president Mika Špiljak
. During the same period his novels The Judge and Knife were published, raising quite a controversy among Yugoslav ruling communist elites. Soon afterwards, due to popular demand, Prayer and Russian Consul were published as well. Because of his controversial literary engagement, Drašković was considered somewhat of a dissident even though he had been a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party
since his 4th year of university studies.
and Vojislav Šešelj
, Drašković founded the Serbian National Renewal
party (SNO) in 1989. However, the trio soon found themselves at political crossroads and their party disintegrated in three pieces.
(Srpski Pokret Obnove, SPO), a democratic nationalist party. They participated in the first post-communist democratic elections, held on 9 December 1990, but finished a distant second amidst the total blackout from the pro-Milošević state media. Following that failure Drašković kept the pressure on Serbian President Slobodan Milošević
via street protests, organizing mass demonstrations in Belgrade on 9 March 1991. The police intervened, and clashed with demonstrators with some damage to public buildings resulting in the Yugoslav People's Army
having to be brought in.
Following the "Karadjordjevo meeting" with Slobodan Milosevic held on March 30th, 1991, Franjo Tuđman, then President of Croatia, publicly stated in a televised press-conference that during the March 9th events Drašković's associates had phoned his government in order to "seek help in toppling the current Serbian regime ". This was manipulated by Slobodan Milošević and the Serbian media to whip up public sentiment against Drašković . While Draskovic's partly vehemently denied any such contact was made with a Croatian regime, many in Yugoslavia began to fear a sense of a subtle but growing symbiosis between two totalitarian leaders in both Serbia and Croatia.
Drašković focused his moderate right-wing program and rhetoric on Serbian pro-Western shift, anti-communism and romanticized Serbian identity-renewal. His plan was to rapidly transform the biggest and most populous part of Yugoslavia (Serbia) according to Western standards so that the eventual international involvement in solving Yugoslav crisis would turn in Serbian favour and produce a peaceful solution. Those with less understanding of fine details of Yugoslav history, or his ideological opponents, often cite his strong nationalist feelings (attempting rehabilitation of allied Serbian Chetniks, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
's legal army during WWII) as contrarian to his insistence on peaceful solution to Yugoslav crisis. His opponents claim Vuk's political engagement at this early stage of his political career is full of inconsistencies and seemingly diametrically opposing views and actions. He insisted that Serbian government should promote radical democratic shift, renew traditional alliances with Western nations as a way to preserve some form of Yugoslav confederation rather than pursue direct confrontation with the Croats. On the other hand, he and his party SPO organized a paramilitary unit called the Serbian Guard
led by former criminals such as Đorđe "Giška" Božović and Branislav "Beli" Matić with Božović dying in Croatia in October 1991, while Matić was killed by Milosevic secret police in April 1991. And although Drašković initially claimed this militia was an incitement to Serbian authorities to form a national armed force outside of Yugoslav People's Army
(see last quote), he eventually distanced himself from the paramilitary formation altogether.
His rather emotional and poetic rhetoric often brought mostly malicious accusations of extremism.There is a contentious quote from his speech at SPO rally in Novi Pazar
during the summer of 1990, in which Drašković said: "Those who, on Serbian land, lift any flag other than a Serbian one, whether it's a Muslim, Albanian, or Croat flag, will be left without the flag and without the hand". Milosevic propaganda immediately took such usage of vividly poetic medieval imagery to be very threatening and menacing, especially considering the fact it was delivered in a town with a large Bosniak
population. Drašković's supporters, however claim he was merely pointing out Serbia would not tolerate separatism
and partition
of its territory. They also say this particular quote should not be viewed outside of context of his entire speech that day, which they say was very much calling for traditional tolerance and peace between Orthodox Serbs and Muslims living in the Sandžak
region. It is ironic that Milosevic-controlled Serbian media throughout the 1990's continuously expressed disgust at Vuk for this statement, while heaping praise on Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic despite their involvement in crimes against Muslims in Bosnia.
Drašković's pronounced anti-war views came to the fore in mid to late 1991, particularly in November of that year when he wrote a passionate accusation of the Serbian bloody assault on Vukovar
in a Serbian daily Borba
. However, during the same period he maintained his focus on comprehensive Serbian anti-communist and pro-Western renewal, and righting anti-Serb taboos that existed in the communist Yugoslavia. While some saw such views as rabidly nationalistic, Vuk's views through interviews, soundbites and op-ed pieces merely reflected the type of care for one's nation's dignity found in any other country of the Western democratic hemisphere. See Quotations. As a final blow to those who accused him of extremism, Vuk in early 1992 called on all citizens of Bosnia to reject nationalism and was the only Serbian political figure to speak about crimes by Serb forces. Always leading the anti-Milošević struggle, Drašković and his wife Danica paid dearly for their activism. In 1993 they were arrested, savagely beaten and thrown into a high-security prison. Only his hunger strike, and the Western world's outrage forced the Serbian regime to set the Draškovićs free.
of Zoran Đinđić and the Civic Alliance of Serbia
under Vesna Pešić
, which achieved major successes in the local elections in November that same year. After hints of holding secret talks with Milosevic, Zoran Đinđić and Vesna Pešić dissolved the coalition when they reneged on the signed coalition document to support Drašković as a joint candidate in the subsequent Presidential elections in the fall of 1997. Drašković's SPO participated on its own at the September 1997 election, boycotted by his former partners despite an array of local electronic media outlets being in opposition hands. The decision by Djindjic and Pesic to boycot 1997 elections would later prove fatal for Serbia, as the subsequent extremist Milosevic/Seselj government pushed Serbia on a collision course with NATO.
In January 1999, SPO, a parliamentary party, was asked to join a coalition with Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia
as tension with US and NATO increased in order to use his influence with Western politicians. In early 1999, Drašković became the deputy prime minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He did so in response to Milošević's appeal for national unity in the face of Albanian uprising in Kosovo and a looming confrontation with NATO. He was sacked by the Prime Minister Momir Bulatović
on 28 April 1999.
Unsuccessful attempts at assassinating
Drašković took place on 3 October 1999 on the Ibar highway
when four of his close associates were murdered, and on 15 June 2000 in Budva
. , Milorad Ulemek
is on trial for this murder and those of Đinđić and Ivan Stambolić
; Milošević was also being prosecuted for the attempt until his death in the Hague.
(DOS) coalition that formed in 2000, meaning that his candidate in the 24 September 2000 federal presidential elections, Vojislav Mihailović, achieved little success and that SPO also was not successful in the subsequent parliamentary election where the DOS
won overwhelmingly. Because of this, Drašković and his party were marginalized over the next three years.
In the fall of 2002, he attempted a comeback as one of the eleven candidates in the (subsequently unsuccessful due to low turnout) Serbian presidential elections. Despite a polished marketing campaign that saw Drašković change his personal appearance and tone down his fiery rhetoric, he ended up with only 4.5% of the total vote, well behind Vojislav Koštunica
(31.2%) and Miroljub Labus
(27.7%), both of whom moved on to the second-round runoff.
His next chance for political redemption came in late 2003. Fully aware of SPO's, as well as his own, weak political standing after more than 3 years in political oblivion, Drašković entered his party into a pre-election coalition with New Serbia
(NS), thus reuniting with old party colleague Velimir Ilić
. Joining forces for the 2003 parliamentary election
, they achieved limited success, but more importantly managed to get into the coalition that formed the minority government (along with DSS
, G17 Plus
), providing it with critical parliamentary seats to keep the far-right radicals (SRS
) at bay. In the subsequent division of power, Drašković received the high-ranking position of Serbia and Montenegro
's foreign minister.
In response to Montenegro's vote for independence
, Drašković called for a restoration of Serbia's monarchy: "This is an historic moment for Serbia itself, a beginning which would be based on the historically-proven and victorious pillars of the Serbian state and I am talking about the pillars of a kingdom." After the breakup with Montenegro in June 2006, Drašković served (until May 2007) as the foreign minister of the Republic of Serbia, a successor to the state union of Serbia-Montenegro.
In August 2010, Vuk Drašković argued in favour of changing the Serbian Constitution of 2006
to remove references to Kosovo
as a part of Serbia
because according to him “Serbia has no national sovereignty over Kosovo whatsoever. All of Serbia knows that Kosovo is not really a province within Serbia, that it is completely beyond the control of the government and the state of Serbia”.
's Law School
, but she was reportedly unresponsive to his clumsy advances. They would run into each other again during 1968 student demonstrations, but this time it was politics that kept them apart. Danica reportedly did not appreciate Vuk's soft stance and no-questions-asked acceptance of Tito's supposed concessions to student demands for democratization. Finally on New Year's Eve, 1974, they ran into each other at a supermarket and Danica invited him to a party at the apartment where she lived with her brother. "I forgot about my fiancée who waited for me to come back from grocery shopping and ended up playing chess the whole night with Danica's brother Veselin Bošković", Vuk would later admit.
Vuk and Danica (née Bošković) married on 10 June 1974, and according to those close to the couple, she became the most important figure in his life, both personally and professionally. She was by his side at all the street protests he later became famous for, and from the very beginning she wielded a lot of power in her husband's political party, SPO
. Danica hails from Montenegro, coming from Bijelo Polje
.
He speaks English
and Russian
.
Žitište
Žitište is a town and municipality in Central Banat District of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 3,236, while Žitište municipality has 20,144 inhabitants.-Name:...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, FPR Yugoslavia), leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement
Serbian Renewal Movement
The Serbian Renewal Movement is a political party in Serbia.It was founded in 1990.In 1997 a dissident group abandoned the party and formed New Serbia....
, is a Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Serbia)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia is the foreign ministry of the Government of Serbia. It is charged with maintaining the consular affairs and foreign relations of Serbia...
of State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
.
He graduated from the University of Belgrade
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
's Law School
University of Belgrade Faculty of Law
The University of Belgrade Faculty of Law , also known as the Belgrade Law School, is one of the first-tier educational institutions of the University of Belgrade, Serbia...
in 1968. From 1969 to 1980 he worked as a journalist in the Yugoslav
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
news agency Tanjug
Tanjug
Tanjug was founded on November 5, 1943. It is now a Serbian news agency based in Belgrade....
. He was also a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party and worked as the chief of staff of the Yugoslav President Mika Špiljak
Mika Špiljak
Mika Špiljak was a Croatian politician in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.He was born in Odra Sisačka . His father Dragutin was a railway worker. Špiljak began working at the age of 16...
. Drašković also wrote several novels.
Early life and career
Born in a small BanatBanat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
region village to a family of settlers from Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
, Vuk was six months old when his mother Stoja died. His father Vidak remarried and had two more sons - Rodoljub and Dragan; and three daughters - Radmila, Tanja and Ljiljana with Dara Drašković, meaning that young Vuk grew up with five half-siblings. Shortly after Vuk's birth, the entire family went back to Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
where he finished primary school in the village of Slivlje, before secondary school studies in Gacko
Gacko
Gacko is a town and municipality in southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Republika Srpska entity. It is situated in the Foča Region.-Geography:The town is in a short distance from Montenegro...
. On his father's insistence Drašković considered studying medicine in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
; however, the city was too "uptight and cramped" for his liking, so he went to study law in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
instead.
Tanjug
Tanjug was founded on November 5, 1943. It is now a Serbian news agency based in Belgrade....
as its African correspondent stationed in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, before taking a job as press advisor in the Yugoslav Workers Union Council (SSRNJ). During his time at SSRNJ, Drašković also spent some time as the personal secretary to the organisation's president Mika Špiljak
Mika Špiljak
Mika Špiljak was a Croatian politician in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.He was born in Odra Sisačka . His father Dragutin was a railway worker. Špiljak began working at the age of 16...
. During the same period his novels The Judge and Knife were published, raising quite a controversy among Yugoslav ruling communist elites. Soon afterwards, due to popular demand, Prayer and Russian Consul were published as well. Because of his controversial literary engagement, Drašković was considered somewhat of a dissident even though he had been a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia , before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na...
since his 4th year of university studies.
Late 1980s
Together with Mirko JovićMirko Jovic
Mirko Jović is a Serbian politician who stood for president of Serbia in the Serbian presidential election, 2004 for the Radical Party of People, Serbia, Diaspora and European Bloc. He lives in Nova Pazova.-Political career:...
and Vojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj, JD is a Serbian politician, writer and lawyer. He is the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party and was vice-president of Serbia between 1998 and 2000...
, Drašković founded the Serbian National Renewal
Serbian National Renewal
The Serbian National Renewal was the first Serbian nationalist political party founded in the country. It was formed in 1989 by Vuk Drašković, Mirko Jović and Vojislav Šešelj...
party (SNO) in 1989. However, the trio soon found themselves at political crossroads and their party disintegrated in three pieces.
Early 1990s
In 1990, Drašković founded the Serbian Renewal MovementSerbian Renewal Movement
The Serbian Renewal Movement is a political party in Serbia.It was founded in 1990.In 1997 a dissident group abandoned the party and formed New Serbia....
(Srpski Pokret Obnove, SPO), a democratic nationalist party. They participated in the first post-communist democratic elections, held on 9 December 1990, but finished a distant second amidst the total blackout from the pro-Milošević state media. Following that failure Drašković kept the pressure on Serbian President Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
via street protests, organizing mass demonstrations in Belgrade on 9 March 1991. The police intervened, and clashed with demonstrators with some damage to public buildings resulting in the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
having to be brought in.
Following the "Karadjordjevo meeting" with Slobodan Milosevic held on March 30th, 1991, Franjo Tuđman, then President of Croatia, publicly stated in a televised press-conference that during the March 9th events Drašković's associates had phoned his government in order to "seek help in toppling the current Serbian regime ". This was manipulated by Slobodan Milošević and the Serbian media to whip up public sentiment against Drašković . While Draskovic's partly vehemently denied any such contact was made with a Croatian regime, many in Yugoslavia began to fear a sense of a subtle but growing symbiosis between two totalitarian leaders in both Serbia and Croatia.
Drašković focused his moderate right-wing program and rhetoric on Serbian pro-Western shift, anti-communism and romanticized Serbian identity-renewal. His plan was to rapidly transform the biggest and most populous part of Yugoslavia (Serbia) according to Western standards so that the eventual international involvement in solving Yugoslav crisis would turn in Serbian favour and produce a peaceful solution. Those with less understanding of fine details of Yugoslav history, or his ideological opponents, often cite his strong nationalist feelings (attempting rehabilitation of allied Serbian Chetniks, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
's legal army during WWII) as contrarian to his insistence on peaceful solution to Yugoslav crisis. His opponents claim Vuk's political engagement at this early stage of his political career is full of inconsistencies and seemingly diametrically opposing views and actions. He insisted that Serbian government should promote radical democratic shift, renew traditional alliances with Western nations as a way to preserve some form of Yugoslav confederation rather than pursue direct confrontation with the Croats. On the other hand, he and his party SPO organized a paramilitary unit called the Serbian Guard
Serbian Guard
The Serbian Guard was a Serbian paramilitary active in Croatia during its War of Independence with close ties to the Serbian Renewal Movement . Eighty percent of the guard's members were members of the SPO...
led by former criminals such as Đorđe "Giška" Božović and Branislav "Beli" Matić with Božović dying in Croatia in October 1991, while Matić was killed by Milosevic secret police in April 1991. And although Drašković initially claimed this militia was an incitement to Serbian authorities to form a national armed force outside of Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
(see last quote), he eventually distanced himself from the paramilitary formation altogether.
His rather emotional and poetic rhetoric often brought mostly malicious accusations of extremism.There is a contentious quote from his speech at SPO rally in Novi Pazar
Novi Pazar
Novi Pazar is a city and municipality located in southwest Serbia, in the Raška District. According to the official census in 2011, number of inhabitants of municipality is 92,776, while the city itself has a population of 60,638...
during the summer of 1990, in which Drašković said: "Those who, on Serbian land, lift any flag other than a Serbian one, whether it's a Muslim, Albanian, or Croat flag, will be left without the flag and without the hand". Milosevic propaganda immediately took such usage of vividly poetic medieval imagery to be very threatening and menacing, especially considering the fact it was delivered in a town with a large Bosniak
Bosniaks of Serbia
Bosniaks are an ethnic group living in Serbia. According to the last census from 2002, the total number of Bosniaks in Serbia was 136,087 and they comprised 1.82% of population...
population. Drašković's supporters, however claim he was merely pointing out Serbia would not tolerate separatism
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
and partition
Partition (politics)
In politics, a partition is a change of political borders cutting through at least one territory considered a homeland by some community. That change is done primarily by diplomatic means, and use of military force is negligible....
of its territory. They also say this particular quote should not be viewed outside of context of his entire speech that day, which they say was very much calling for traditional tolerance and peace between Orthodox Serbs and Muslims living in the Sandžak
Sandžak
Sandžak also known as Raška is a historical region lying along the border between Serbia and Montenegro...
region. It is ironic that Milosevic-controlled Serbian media throughout the 1990's continuously expressed disgust at Vuk for this statement, while heaping praise on Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic despite their involvement in crimes against Muslims in Bosnia.
Drašković's pronounced anti-war views came to the fore in mid to late 1991, particularly in November of that year when he wrote a passionate accusation of the Serbian bloody assault on Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
in a Serbian daily Borba
Borba
Borba may refer to:Place names* Borba, Amazonas, a municipality in Amazonas state in Brazil* Borba Municipality, Portugal* Borba, Portugal * Borba DOC, a Portuguese wine region* Borba de Montanha, parish in Celorico de Basto Municipality...
. However, during the same period he maintained his focus on comprehensive Serbian anti-communist and pro-Western renewal, and righting anti-Serb taboos that existed in the communist Yugoslavia. While some saw such views as rabidly nationalistic, Vuk's views through interviews, soundbites and op-ed pieces merely reflected the type of care for one's nation's dignity found in any other country of the Western democratic hemisphere. See Quotations. As a final blow to those who accused him of extremism, Vuk in early 1992 called on all citizens of Bosnia to reject nationalism and was the only Serbian political figure to speak about crimes by Serb forces. Always leading the anti-Milošević struggle, Drašković and his wife Danica paid dearly for their activism. In 1993 they were arrested, savagely beaten and thrown into a high-security prison. Only his hunger strike, and the Western world's outrage forced the Serbian regime to set the Draškovićs free.
Mid to late 1990s
In 1996 SPO formed the opposition alliance Zajedno ("Together") with the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party (Serbia)
The Democratic Party is a political party in Serbia. It is described as a social liberal or social democratic party.-Pre-war history:The Democratic Party was established on 16 February 1919 from unification of Sarajevo parties independent radicals, progressives, liberals and the Serbian part of...
of Zoran Đinđić and the Civic Alliance of Serbia
Civic Alliance of Serbia
Civic Alliance of Serbia was a social-liberal party in Serbia.Known widely by its three-letter acronym in Serbian, GSS was founded and registered in 1992...
under Vesna Pešić
Vesna Pešic
Vesna Pešić is a Serbian politician, one of the leaders of opposition movement in Serbia....
, which achieved major successes in the local elections in November that same year. After hints of holding secret talks with Milosevic, Zoran Đinđić and Vesna Pešić dissolved the coalition when they reneged on the signed coalition document to support Drašković as a joint candidate in the subsequent Presidential elections in the fall of 1997. Drašković's SPO participated on its own at the September 1997 election, boycotted by his former partners despite an array of local electronic media outlets being in opposition hands. The decision by Djindjic and Pesic to boycot 1997 elections would later prove fatal for Serbia, as the subsequent extremist Milosevic/Seselj government pushed Serbia on a collision course with NATO.
In January 1999, SPO, a parliamentary party, was asked to join a coalition with Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
as tension with US and NATO increased in order to use his influence with Western politicians. In early 1999, Drašković became the deputy prime minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He did so in response to Milošević's appeal for national unity in the face of Albanian uprising in Kosovo and a looming confrontation with NATO. He was sacked by the Prime Minister Momir Bulatović
Momir Bulatovic
Momir Bulatović , formerly served as a Yugoslavian and Montenegrin politician. Bulatović became federal President of Montenegro while Montenegro was part of a Yugoslav federation, and also Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
on 28 April 1999.
Unsuccessful attempts at assassinating
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
Drašković took place on 3 October 1999 on the Ibar highway
Ibarska magistrala assassination
The Ibar highway assassination attempt refers to the events of October 3, 1999 when active members of the Yugoslav state security's Special Operations Unit attempted to murder Vuk Drašković on the Ibar highway by slamming a truck full of sand into his two-car motorcade...
when four of his close associates were murdered, and on 15 June 2000 in Budva
Budva
Budva is a coastal town in Montenegro. It has around 15,000 inhabitants, and it is the centre of municipality...
. , Milorad Ulemek
Milorad Ulemek
Milorad "Legija" Ulemek , also known as Milorad Luković is a former commander of the Serbian secret police special unit, the Red Berets , convicted of the assassinations of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic and organiser of the attempted murder of the...
is on trial for this murder and those of Đinđić and Ivan Stambolić
Ivan Stambolic
Ivan Stambolić was a Communist Party of Yugoslavia official and the President of the Republic of Serbia in the 1980s who was later victim of an assassination....
; Milošević was also being prosecuted for the attempt until his death in the Hague.
Post-Milošević
In what he himself later termed "a bad political move", Drašković kept his SPO out of the wide anti-Milošević Democratic Opposition of SerbiaDemocratic Opposition of Serbia
The Democratic Opposition of Serbia was a wide alliance of political parties in Serbia , formed as a coalition against the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and its leader, Slobodan Milošević in 2000...
(DOS) coalition that formed in 2000, meaning that his candidate in the 24 September 2000 federal presidential elections, Vojislav Mihailović, achieved little success and that SPO also was not successful in the subsequent parliamentary election where the DOS
Democratic Opposition of Serbia
The Democratic Opposition of Serbia was a wide alliance of political parties in Serbia , formed as a coalition against the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and its leader, Slobodan Milošević in 2000...
won overwhelmingly. Because of this, Drašković and his party were marginalized over the next three years.
In the fall of 2002, he attempted a comeback as one of the eleven candidates in the (subsequently unsuccessful due to low turnout) Serbian presidential elections. Despite a polished marketing campaign that saw Drašković change his personal appearance and tone down his fiery rhetoric, he ended up with only 4.5% of the total vote, well behind Vojislav Koštunica
Vojislav Koštunica
Vojislav Koštunica is a Serbian politician, statesman and the president of the Democratic Party of Serbia. He was the last President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, succeeding Slobodan Milošević and serving from 2000 to 2003...
(31.2%) and Miroljub Labus
Miroljub Labus
Miroljub Labus is a Serbian economist and politician. Currently he's a University of Belgrade professor, lecturing political economy at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law...
(27.7%), both of whom moved on to the second-round runoff.
His next chance for political redemption came in late 2003. Fully aware of SPO's, as well as his own, weak political standing after more than 3 years in political oblivion, Drašković entered his party into a pre-election coalition with New Serbia
New Serbia
New Serbia is a political party in Serbia. It was created in 1997 by a number of dissidents from the Serbian Renewal Movement....
(NS), thus reuniting with old party colleague Velimir Ilić
Velimir Ilic
Velimir "Velja" Ilić is Serbian politician and a former Minister of Capital Investments in the Serbian government in the cabinet of Vojislav Koštunica.- Biography :...
. Joining forces for the 2003 parliamentary election
Serbian parliamentary election, 2003
Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of Serbia on December 28, 2003. The Republic of Serbia then was one of the two federal units of Serbia and Montenegro, formerly known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
, they achieved limited success, but more importantly managed to get into the coalition that formed the minority government (along with DSS
Democratic Party of Serbia
The Democratic Party of Serbia is a political party in Serbia.-Foundation:The Democratic Party of Serbia was founded when a faction of the Democratic Party that supported its involvement in the Democratic Movement of Serbia split from the party and formed their own in 1992.Soon after the March...
, G17 Plus
G17 Plus
G17 Plus , abbreviated to G17+, is a centre-right political party in Serbia. With 22 seats in the National Assembly, it is the third-largest party, and currently participates in a coalition with, amongst others, the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party...
), providing it with critical parliamentary seats to keep the far-right radicals (SRS
Serbian Radical Party
The Serbian Radical Party is a far-right Serbian nationalist political party in Serbia, founded in 1991. Currently the second-largest party in the Serbian National Assembly, it has branches in three of the nations that currently border Serbia – all former federal republics of Yugoslavia...
) at bay. In the subsequent division of power, Drašković received the high-ranking position of Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro was a country in southeastern Europe, formed from two former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia : Serbia and Montenegro. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was established in 1992 as a federation called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
's foreign minister.
In response to Montenegro's vote for independence
Montenegrin independence referendum, 2006
The Montenegrin independence referendum was a referendum on the independence of the Republic of Montenegro from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro that was held on 21 May 2006.The total turnout of the referendum was 86.5%...
, Drašković called for a restoration of Serbia's monarchy: "This is an historic moment for Serbia itself, a beginning which would be based on the historically-proven and victorious pillars of the Serbian state and I am talking about the pillars of a kingdom." After the breakup with Montenegro in June 2006, Drašković served (until May 2007) as the foreign minister of the Republic of Serbia, a successor to the state union of Serbia-Montenegro.
In August 2010, Vuk Drašković argued in favour of changing the Serbian Constitution of 2006
Constitution of Serbia
The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia is Serbia's fundamental law. The current constitution was approved in a constitutional referendum, held from on 28–29 October 2006...
to remove references to Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
as a part of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
because according to him “Serbia has no national sovereignty over Kosovo whatsoever. All of Serbia knows that Kosovo is not really a province within Serbia, that it is completely beyond the control of the government and the state of Serbia”.
Personal
Vuk and his wife, Danica, met in the 1960s as students at the University of BelgradeUniversity of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
's Law School
University of Belgrade Faculty of Law
The University of Belgrade Faculty of Law , also known as the Belgrade Law School, is one of the first-tier educational institutions of the University of Belgrade, Serbia...
, but she was reportedly unresponsive to his clumsy advances. They would run into each other again during 1968 student demonstrations, but this time it was politics that kept them apart. Danica reportedly did not appreciate Vuk's soft stance and no-questions-asked acceptance of Tito's supposed concessions to student demands for democratization. Finally on New Year's Eve, 1974, they ran into each other at a supermarket and Danica invited him to a party at the apartment where she lived with her brother. "I forgot about my fiancée who waited for me to come back from grocery shopping and ended up playing chess the whole night with Danica's brother Veselin Bošković", Vuk would later admit.
Vuk and Danica (née Bošković) married on 10 June 1974, and according to those close to the couple, she became the most important figure in his life, both personally and professionally. She was by his side at all the street protests he later became famous for, and from the very beginning she wielded a lot of power in her husband's political party, SPO
Serbian Renewal Movement
The Serbian Renewal Movement is a political party in Serbia.It was founded in 1990.In 1997 a dissident group abandoned the party and formed New Serbia....
. Danica hails from Montenegro, coming from Bijelo Polje
Bijelo Polje
Bijelo Polje is a town in northern Montenegro. It has a population of 15,883 .Bijelo Polje is the center of municipality . It is unofficial center of north-eastern region of Montenegro...
.
He speaks English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
Quotations
"In Croatia, an Ustaša government has been re-established; armed formations of Serb-killers are being founded. The Ustaša Supreme Leadership has concluded an anti-Serb pact with the Arnauts [archaic Serbian term for Albanians] and Muslim fundamentalists, the de-Serbianized but militant and loud minority in Montenegro, and the Serbophobic staffs around Macedonia, who are openly asking for our territories. The Serbian people are faced with a united hatred, as they were in 1914 and 1941. We must oppose the menacing Evil as soon as possible, immediately. We must not allow ourselves, for the third time in this century, to be overtaken by events. It is our duty to subordinate to the defence of the nation"
"The Ustaša knife is being held to the throat of the Serbian people in the western Serbian Krajinas and only Serbia can and must help them. More than 200,000 Serbs from the Croatia of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia have already abandoned their hearths, and Serbia authorities have the audacity to say that the country is not at war with the Ustaše. Had the Ustaše done nothing other than blowing up our martyr church in Jasenovac as they did several days ago, it would be reason enough to declare war on them, both as a nation and as a state."
Never would a Serbian Army allow a 50 year Golgotha [meant since the Partisan liberation of 1945 that slowly pressured Serbs to abandon some long-inhabited territories] of its people in Kosovo, Bosnia, Raska or Krajina [part of Croatia with a Serb majority]. And it would not allow arming to the tooth of those whose ethnic and religious ideal is for Serbs to vanish. However it is not, and it can never be a Serbian Army that which aspires to bring back with its tanks, a political system to Croatia, Slovenia or Macedonia that its people have rejected.