A Reshuffle in the SPS?

Cicak paid the price of this brave prediction with his own head - he was sacked from the Executive Board of JUL, and as is the case with most great prophets his predictions turned out to be at least partially correct. The press reported that something was cooking in the Socialist Party of Serbia; Mihajlo Markovic, former chief ideologist of the party, publicly criticized Milosevic personally; "well informed sources" revealed that the sacking of Vucelic can be expected at any time; an expert told "Vreme" that "the liquidation is under way". On hearing all of this, Zoran Cicak probably smiled and rubbed his hand in satisfaction, wherever he may have been at the time. The above mentioned "liquidation", is only the continuation of a process which has been going on in Serbia for some time - ever since Slobodan Milosevic decided that "peace has no alternative". At approximately the same time, the JUL was formed, bringing together the already tested cadre of Mira Markovic and members of the Socialist party who were more or less completely neglected by their party (Radmilo Bogdanovic, Vladimir Stambuk, Aleksandar Bakocevic...).

The fact that a large proportion of YUL membership were involved in the preparations of, took part in, and celebrated the victory of the first great party reshuffle, the famous 8th Session of the Serbian Communist Party in 1987, indicates that Milosevic is aquainted with the rule which says that if a leader makes an unexpected u-turn at least a part of his followers will continue straight on, and prepared for what is happening now accordingly. In other words, the striking fist was formed a while ago, and some time was needed to find out who will forget to turn in time, that is, who will end up at the receiving end of the fist. Mihajlo Markovic, once in charge of reformulating Milosevic's "we do not know how to work, but we know how to fight" policies and giving them a proper name, and Vucelic, who was in charge of presenting them to the public in the appropriate way - were first on the hit list. Mirjana Markovic, the ideologist and propagator of her husband's current peace policy, has a personal grudge against them. Everything else is a question of time, or as politicians and policemen here would say, a question of "correct proceeding".

Zoran Cicak, who knew everything too well, once gave the following answer to the question about the relations between JUL and SPS: "We have excellent relations with those within the SPS who are well informed about what Milosevic thinks".

The group of socialists whose names are on the hit list have been denied such relevant information (about what Milosevic thinks), so Vucelic made a slip and publicly criticized JUL, while Mihajlo Markovic went a step further and even skirmished with the president's wife in the press.

One thing which suited the "rebels" within the SPS was the fact that for some time now, Milosevic, burdened with all kinds of problems, had no time to occupy himself with his own party, so the influence of the "rebels" within the party grew. Their position within the party was strong enough to obtain Cicak's head on a plate, and leave the impression that they could do something more serious.

Rumors about open opposition to Milosevic's policies, particularly since the fall of Knin and announcements that Eastern Slavonija will also be given up, became more frequent, and according to some sources, part of the party leadership asked for Eastern Slavonija and the area around Trebinje (Eastern Herzegovina) to be declared "areas of national interest". It was also revealed that SPS "hard-liners" favor a deal with the Bosnian Serbs - like the one Milosevic recently made under American pressure.

The same group of people, led by Milorad Vucelic, opposed Milosevic's idea about the reconstruction of the Serbian government. The President of Serbia had the idea of obtaining a "wider national consensus" for his peacemaking efforts through a government that would include Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement. Socialist power holders, who for a while had to share their power (and money) with the increasingly ambitious JUL, could not swallow this idea that easily.

The dice for the new "showdown" have thus been loaded, but a serious problem emerged since - who should come out as the winner: Slobodan Milosevic or Mirjana Markovic. The ambitions of the "striking fist" have grown over night to such an extent that even those socialists who remain loyal to Milosevic now fear that they too may get "swallowed up".

It is however highly unlikely that Milosevic intends to give up on his own party without finding something else that would enable him to retain control over the vast apparatus of power. This is why he appeared, to everyone's surprise, at a meeting of his party's Executive Council, that is why he responded to criticisms from Mihajlo Markovic, that is why he organized a few meetings with editors-in-chief and directors of media under his control, that is why he temporarily stopped giving JUL preferential treatment, and is thinking of doing the same with Vuk Draskovic.