Democratic Party (Serbia)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Democratic Party
Демократска странка
Demokratska stranka
Leader	Boris Tadić
Founded	11 December 1989
Headquarters	Krunska 69, Belgrade
Political ideology	Social democracy Social liberalism
International affiliation	Socialist International
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
Colour(s)	Blue, Yellow
Website	www.ds.rs
Also about Serbian politics	Politics List of political parties Elections

The Democratic Party (Serbian: Демократска странка, Demokratska stranka, listen (help·info)) is the main center-left political party in Serbia. It claims continuity of the historical Democratic Party. It is the largest political party in Serbia in terms of sitting Members of Parliament, and in what respects the international arena, the Democratic Party is a member of the Socialist International and Party of European Socialists. Both current President of Serbia Boris Tadić and current Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković are members of or associated with the Democratic Party.

[edit] History

[edit] 1990s

On December 11, 1989, a group of 13 intellectuals held a press conference in Belgrade where they announced the intention to re-establish the Democratic Party and invited everyone to join the first opposition party in Serbia. The founding assembly of the DS was held on February 3, 1990, in Belgrade. The first elected party president was Dragoljub Mićunović.

Members of the DS 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 with the pro-DEPOS wing of the DS 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] Recent events

The fall of Slobodan Milošević regime in October 2000 occurred after street protests by hundreds of thousands of citizens. Democratic Party was the biggest party of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia block that won 64.7% of the votes in 2000 elections held in December 2000, getting 176 of 250 seats in the Parliamentary Assembly. In 2001 Zoran Đinđić was appointed the Prime Minister of Serbia at the head of the first post-Milosevic, post-Communist Government of Serbia sworn in on 21 January 2001.

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 re-elected at the Serbian presidential election, 2008.

The party has also taken three seats in the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija, but has refused to sit in the Assembly until the situation in Kosovo is stabilized.^[1]

In the most recent 2008 elections the pro-European coalition led by the DS won 38.5% of the popular vote, translating into 102 seats in the Serbian National Assembly, making it the largest political party block in the Serbian Parliament.

[edit] Presidency

Presidency of the Democratic Party members are:

• Boris Tadić, Party President
• Dušan Petrović, Deputy President
• Vida Ognjenović, Vice President
• Dragan Šutanovac, Vice President
• Bojan Pajtić, Vice President
• Dragoljub Mićunović, President of the political committee

Extended Presidency members by their political position are:

• Dragan Đilas, representative of Belgrade region and President of Belgrade branch
• Oliver Dulić, representative of Novi Sad region
• Milorad Đurić, representative of Zrenjanin region
• Miodrag Đidić, representative of Kragujevac region
• Milovan Marković, representative of Užice region
• Ivica Stevanić, representative of Smederevo region
• Vladimir Jovanović, representative of Leskovac region
• Boško Ristić, representative of Niš region
• Goran Bogdanović, President of Regional branch for Kosovo and Metohija
• Dušan Elezović, President of Regional branch for Vojvodina
• Igor Pavličić, President of City branch of Novi Sad
• Miloš Simonović, President of City branch of Niš
• Gordana Čomić, President of the Women Forum of the Democratic Party
• Milan Vučković, President of the Democratic Youth
• Marko Đurišić, President of the Executive Committee
• Tamara Tripić, Party Secretary
• Ružica Pavlović-Đinđić
• Božidar Đelić
• Srđan Šaper
• Borislav Novaković
• Nada Kolundžija, President of the party parliamentary group

[edit] Positions held

Major positions held by Democratic Party members:

Current Mayors of Novi Sad, Niš, Subotica, Užice, Pančevo, Sombor, Zrenjanin, Šabac, Smederevo and Valjevo are also members of the Democratic Party.

[edit] External links

• Official site

[edit] References

• About Democratic Party

v • d • e Political parties in Serbia Parliamentary parties: Democratic Party  (64) | G17 Plus  (22) | Socialist Party of Serbia  (12) | Party of United Pensioners of Serbia  (5)  | League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina  (5) | Serbian Renewal Movement  (4) | United Serbia  (3) | Together for Šumadija  (2) | Serbian Radical Party  (57) | Democratic Party of Serbia  (21) | Serbian Progressive Party  (20) | Liberal Democratic Party  (11) | New Serbia  (9) | Christian Democratic Party of Serbia  (1) | Social Democratic Union  (1) | Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians  (4) | Sandžak Democratic Party  (4) | Bosniak Democratic Party of Sandžak  (1) | Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina  (1) | Social Liberal Party of Sandžak  (1) | Party for Democratic Action  (1) Minor parties: National Party | Liberals of Serbia | None of the above | People's Party | Reformist Party | Serbian Liberal Party | Serbian Strength Movement | Social Democratic Party | Socialist People's Party | Roma Party | Roma Union of Serbia Political parties in Kosovo: See List of political parties in Kosovo Politics of Serbia · Political parties by country · Politics portal