All For One

The story of a united opposition was met by all in a different way: Vuk Draskovic called a rally (mentioning the opposition, March 9, students, peasants, journalists and of course himself -heading the lot); the trio Kostunica, Djindjic and Seselj reflected a newspaper headline - Agreement on Interparty Cooperation at Local Authority Level - which in fact, was the first step to serious cooperation among the opposition, and even more important, an attempt at including Draskovic into this new creation.

"Vuk must be brought back into the system", said one of the three initiators for interparty cooperation, talking to VREME, and added that a small test had been thought up for the purpose. A day ahead of the meeting at which the agreement should have been signed, Seselj withdrew his members from local authority bodies in the communities of Palilula, Rakovica and Zemun, after which the agreement was consolidated, including the clause under which all four parties agreed that their representatives would resign from all their functions in community executive bodies in which the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) representatives dominated.

In other words, by agreeing to this clause, Draskovic would have to renounce the power he currently shares with the Socialists in some Belgrade communities (primarily Savski Venac) and bring in the other opposition parties as equal partners in Stari Grad where the SPO hold power for the time being. If he wishes to reach an agreement with the united trio, Draskovic will have to renounce his New Democracy coalition partners. In this way he'd be giving up a safety valve for doing independent deals with the Socialists (the other opposition parties accuse him of having used New Democracy for this particular purpose so far) and every future transaction with the ruling party would have to go through the process of deciding on the price jointly, with the participation of Seselj, Djindjic and Kostunica. In this way, bringing Vuk back into the fold would be completed.

Various interests lie in the wish for a tame Vuk. Djindjic would then finally have one opposition opponent on his ground and it would be much easier for him to cope with all that he thinks the Socialists are preparing for him - above all for the federal elections which he expects will be scheduled by the end of the year. Fearing that these elections will be rigged, or the good position the SPS might enjoy if, thanks to a miracle, sanctions are lifted, Djindjic, according to some of his statements, is willing to agree to a joint opposition list with an equal number of candidates from all parties.

Kostunica, on the other hand, does not have much of a chance. Talking to VREME, Kostunica said that he considered the story of a united opposition, one about the SPS and not the opposition, a story which fits in perfectly with that what he calls the "showbiz part of the political scene in Serbia". He is happy however, that cooperation among the opposition has started slowly and will develop step by step.

Vojislav Seselj doubts the others' sincere intentions (except Kostunica's), and has entered the game for the same reasons he was prepared to cooperate with the big opposition parties before his term in jail. The more of them there are against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, the easier it will be for Seselj. Seselj is convinced that Milosevic is thinking of having him removed permanently ("... they thought of killing me in a cafe brawl or a street fight"). At the same time, Seselj has left open all channels for cooperating with the opposition parties (currently he is the only one who has good relations with all the strong parties), and he has remained firm in his decision that the agreement on interparty cooperation must bring an end to all further cooperation between the signatories and the Socialists.

All in all, the trio have made a problem for Vuk Draskovic. Knowing this, he first tried to take the initiative with regard to unification, and for the first time in a long while, attacked Milosevic and his wife openly, after which he called on the opposition to "come to their senses", and mentioned the spirit of all the former rallies and demonstrations... Until a year or so ago, this would have been enough to solve all Vuk's problems.

Things, however, stand differently today. Seselj, Kostunica and Djindjic have a voting body (according to data from the last election) close to 1,400,000 votes; at local elections they fare better than the SPO; they have no intention of dealing with Vuk individually, but united. Unlike in previous years, they were the ones who called for unification this time, and what is worse for Draskovic, they seem to be ready to accept every one of his suggestions, but on their terms.

Vuk will probably try to declare them betrayers of the opposition's cause, but it doesn't seem likely that he will have much luck in this respect - and they will proclaim him a traitor. On the other hand, it is difficult to believe that Vuk will agree sincerely to interparty cooperation for the simple reason that he would then be abandoning the position of the first and biggest opposition figure in Serbia. This is why the battle will go on and the fighters will do their best to trick one another.

The Socialists will just sit back and watch the whole thing from the sidelines.

Party Unification

One Serb-Two Parties-Three Coalitions

The unification of parties, leads as a rule, to their multiplying.

The united opposition: Ahead of the '90 elections the forming of the united opposition failed, and the opposition parties after bad results in the first round, formed the United Democratic Opposition of Serbia which lived the life of a dragon-fly and died after the second round of elections. The opposition was united during the March 9 demonstrations in Belgrade and until summer 1992.

DEPOS: DEPOS was founded on May 16, 1992 and its founding members were: SPO, ND-PS (New Democracy - Movement for Serbia), DS (Democratic Party, those members who would later join the DSS). Before becoming a rump DEPOS, this coalition rallied 14 parties and a large number of intellectuals. Ahead of the '93 elections, the DSS (Democratic Party of Serbia) and the SLS (Serbian Liberal Party) had left DEPOS while the National Farmers' League and the GSS (Civic Alliance) had joined. The GSS was the result of the unification of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina/Yugoslavia, the National Farmers' Party, the Reformist Party and the Republican Club on June 10, 1992. After the '93 election and the establishing of the "Government of national unity", ND-PS, a DEPOS member, tried sitting on two chairs at once: formally, they were members of the opposition DEPOS, but at the same time they had cabinet ministers and a vice prime minister. The ND-PS was strengthened with the Social Democratic Party of the center led by Cedomir Mirkovic, who, after failing to unite parties of the Social Democratic option, became ND-PS president.

A clash in the SPO led to a war over the party name, and ended with the exclusion of Slobodan Rakitic and his group and the forming of the National Assembly Party.

The Radicals: Even though they were the first among the opposition members to announce a unification, the Radicals, paradoxically, remained even more disunited. Their attempt at unification on Epiphany on January 19, 1991 did not succeed, so that as many as five Radical parties were registered: the National Radical Party, the Old Radical Party, the People's Radicals, NRS Nikola Pasic, the United Radicals, and the Serbian Radical Party (Seselj's) from which some members branched off and founded the Radical Party of Serbia and the NRS Nikola Pasic, which, however, united recently. Apart from them, there are also the Yugoslav Economic-Radical Party and the Radical Party of the 21st Century.

The Serbian National Front: After the elections, small national parties formed a non-parliamentary coalition on March 10, 1992 -the Serbian National Front which consisted of the Serbian Saint Sava Party, the Old Radical Party, the Belgrade Party, the Democratic Party of Freedom, the NRS, the Movement for the Unification of Serbia and Montenegro, the Democratic Party "Davidovic-Grol" and the Republican Party from Arandjelovac. During the period when DEPOS was being created, this coalition became its collective member.

The Yugoslav Democratic Bloc: Founded on April 4, 1992 by the Democratic Pedagogic Party of Yugoslavia, the Socialist National Party of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Center for Universal Spiritual Development and Education.

In the name of the rose: The first party to proclaim unification was the then ruling League of Communists which united with its sister organization the Socialist Alliance of the Working People and at the Congress of Unification (16-17 July 1990) proclaimed the founding of a new party - the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).

The proletarian international in Serbia: At the last election ('93) parties of Communist leanings and Leftist organizations went before the voters with a single list - the United Left and won 34,000 votes which was not enough for one deputy place. From this nucleus the Yugoslav United Left (JUL) was formed in July. The seven dissident Communist parties (the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, the Alliance of Workers of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Workers' Party Josip Broz Tito, the Socialist National Party of Yugoslavia, the SKJ, the SKS and the SKCG) united in August to form the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.

VREME Documentary Center

A Bit of Serbian Opposition History

Milosevic Admired Seselj

Seselj claims that the Serbian President congratulated him several times on his courage and know-how in handling the masses

After getting into jail, Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Seselj started to speak a lot more openly of the times when he had collaborated closely with the Socialists. This cooperation started before the 1991 elections and lasted until the rejection of the Vance-Owen peace plan in May 1993. It was no secret, even though the Radicals publicly disclaimed any connection with the SPS at the time. It has turned out however, that Milosevic and Seselj cooperated far more closely than was thought. "I often got the impression that Milosevic trusted me a lot more than his closest associates. When he'd agree on something with me, he was sure that I would keep my word and not betray him."

In an interview to the paper A Greater Serbia, Seselj claims that during several of their meetings, Milosevic congratulated him on his courage and know-how in handling the masses: "He admired me enormously for having the guts to walk out on my own through a mass of screaming demonstrators seething with hatred. When they threw bottles and stones at me in front of the Assembly, after which I drew out my pistol, Milosevic said that it had all turned out very well and that someone must teach the rabble some sense (he complained that they had tried to attack his house). He loved the fight with the taxi drivers and I'm sure he saw footage of the blow after which the alleged taxi driver, in fact an upholsterer and SPO member hit the ground, several times. He was delighted when Branislav Vakic (SRS deputy) knocked out Mihajlo Markovic..."

Apart from admiring and supporting him, Milosevic, said Seselj, received through him documents compromising Vuk Draskovic, former Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic and former Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic. In return, Seselj refrained from any actions without Milosevic's approval. "Slobodan Milosevic personally showed me secret police reports which proved that Svetozar Stojanovic and Dragoslav Rancic (Cosic's advisors) were working for foreign intelligence services... That's the way things stood when we decided to undermine the election of Svetozar Marovic for President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in order to make space for Dobrica Cosic. And we agreed that I should provoke an incident and prevent Cosic from attempting to make a coalition government in early 1993. We reached our first agreement in a villa in Tolstoy St. and Mihalj Kertes attended, while the second took place in the Serbian Presidency and in the presence of Milomir Minic." (During the above mentioned incident Seselj attacked Rancic at a press conference, threatening to arrest him and then strangle him with his bare hands.)

Seselj claims that Milosevic was very concerned about his health, and that he even allotted as many as thirty secret service men as his body guards. "I was embarrassed. I refused, but it didn't help," said Seselj. "Milosevic was seriously concerned when he heard that I had been operated on the first day of the December 1992 elections. At first he didn't know that the matter concerned a lumbar hernia. He thought that it was a lot more serious. He personally ordered a top Serbian Secret Service official to sit up all night by my bed after the operation".

Apart from all the concern, care and love Milosevic showed him, Seselj claims that he was never impressed by his personality: "I don't think that he is a very witty and charming man, but he is doubtless intelligent and educated. My impression is that he is rather rigid, and doesn't have a sense of humor, especially on his own account. I made jokes on several occasions and he hid his anger with difficulty. He'd get serious and start persuading me that the stand I had expressed with the joke was not right. Sometimes I did this just for laughs, and was surprised at the time and energy he spent in trying to dissuade me of something he had no need to.