Small Fry

DS's leader Zoran Djindjic has, as he put it, given the routine support, and has not given up on expanding the Coalition, announcing even its asymmetrical expansion. Already the next day, the mayor of Nis and the vice president of the DS Zoran Zivkovic hosted the president of pharmaceutical company ICN and the former Federal Minister Milan Panic, who does not hide his desire to become the presidential nominee of the expanded democratic block. It is no secret that Panic has decided to actively participate in the pre-election campaign exactly at the invitation of Djindjic, although not so long ago DS's leader said that he does not count on the candidates with whom they have already lost election races. An even greater absurdity, Vuk Draskovic, the creator of the slogan "everyone, everyone, everyone" and the greatest patron of the unification of the opposition, became the greatest opponent of the idea of creating the broader democratic block, and recognizes only danger to his nomination in all those symmetries and asymmetries.

During his visit to Nis, Milan Panic left open the question of his nomination. A few days earlier, or precisely on April 17 in Moscow, and at the occasion of the opening of the European ICN Center in front of a minor group of Yugoslav journalists who were his guests on the occasion, he was more explicit. The people from ICN were explaining that their company will in several years, thanks to business with Russia, jump from the 38th place on the world's rating list of the pharmaceutical companies to the 7th or the 8th. Panic added to this that ICN Galenika currently only brings down the rating of his company. The Yugoslav journalists were interested, however, in solving only one enigma: whether or not Milan Panic will be a candidate for the President of Serbia. That is why we asked Dusan Mitevic to answer for Vreme weekly whether he has advised Panic to compete? "I did not advise him to compete. I believe that decision should be brought only after all of the necessary conditions are fulfilled. First we have to see what are the legal rules, what will the election law be like and whether the conditions in respect to the media will be equal... Without those rules and conditions, a nomination is just a sports discipline," answered Mitevic.

And Mitevic considers that a much more important issue than the very conditions is that Zajedno or the opposition, "produces one candidate, and if they don't do that, they have no chance to win. I am for the businessman candidate : it may be Panic, it may be also Karic, or some third person... In any case, I would not support any of the party men or politicians, because our problems are economic. The problems of the economy, of relations with the world, loans, financing... within the foreseeable future no political garniture may resolve them, because the crisis will be such that all the governments will hang." Mitevic is convinced also that Milosevic will not run for the position of President of Serbia again: "He will probably run for the federal state, for the president of SRY who is to be elected by the federal Parliament. SPS will seek the new candidate, and who might that be - I don't know."

When Panic and his associates invited us to his apartment in the hotel Radison-Slaviyanskaya, more thorough conversation was initiated on the subject --the purpose of which we came to Moscow. Bill Clinton also resided in that hotel, however, who, as Panic said, met with him more times than the most famous Serb Mihailo Pupin ever met Wilson. Mitevic was also more direct while in the apartment: "If you do not wish to run, Seselj and a Socialist will enter the second round, and the Socialist will win. Neither Vuk nor Djindjic stand the chance." It would be interesting to find out what Mitevic has advised Bogoljub Karic, the owner of the BK company and the presidential nominee as well, whose adviser and associate is also Mitevic. Maybe the answer was given by Panic himself, who claims that his friend Bogoljub Karic is a small businessman who should not mingle in politics... That Karic may own the television network, the bank in Moscow with 35 people... that Karic has become businessman in a communist environment, in contrast to him who attained everything in the rough capitalism. "Let him not mingle in the politics, and I shall, if he wishes so, assign him another frequency," Panic made his point.

There's no doubt that Panic wants to run and that for the time being, his only insurmountable obstacle is Vuk Draskovic. "Djindjic called me... my friend Vuk Draskovic also called me, and Vesna Pesic too and I will enlist in their campaign. It is important that the opposition unites and nominates the candidate who will win. If their estimate is Vuk, I will support him, if they estimate it's Panic, I will accept the nomination..." On our direct question about whether Draskovic leave the nomination to him, Panic answered that his friend Vuk is an emotional but clever man who will, given he estimates his chances to win as low, leave the place to someone else. "I am only interested in competing against Milosevic. That would be the challenge for me. Lilic - small fry, he is no challenge for me."

"The little Serbian emigrant," as he persistently called himself, is ready to sacrifice; if he runs and wins, his first adviser will be the former governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, Dragoslav Avramovic. He insisted that we should write about real problems, which are not in politics but in economy. For initiating the Yugoslav economy, he claims, three billion dollars are needed, and he is ready to find them...