Milosevic For President

In the morning there were discussions on confirming the candidacy for president on the advice of the coalition SPS-JUL-ND, and in the afternoon, sessions of both houses of the Yugoslav Parliament were held for electing the chief of that state.

DPS CG members of parliament, otherwise known for good parliamentary behavior, approached the bench dressed in t-shirts, which could sooner be explained by the fact that they were not warned ahead of time that the election of the president would take place the very same day, than by the fact that attempts were being made to boycott the election. Parliamentary reporters also concluded that something important would happen that day because of the unusual amount of flowers which decked the halls of Parliament, even though the man intended to smell those flowers that evening never showed up.

Montenegrin DPS was never mentioned in the nominations process, but it is quite certain that representatives of this party circled Milosevic’s name in a secret ballot (the balloting was conducted by circling the ordinal number in front of the only candidate, as all the self-proclaimed candidates, as a matter of protocol, were eliminated in a previous procedure). In the Citizen’s House of Parliament of SR of Yugoslavia, 109 MP’s took ballots; 99 of them voted, of which 88 gave their support to Slobodan Milosevic. In the Federal House of Parliament, where a secret ballot was also conducted, of the 31 present MP’s, 29 voted for Slobodan Milosevic.

This bustling has symbolic significance — in all its absence of dignity, the election of the nation’s president has much the same markings of the covert replacement of the SFRY flag with that of SRY, in April of 1992.

Some people find the reason for all the hurry in electing the president of SRY to be in the uncertain situation in Montenegro, which those nominating Milosevic did not want to allow to interfere with their vote. As the result of the vote clearly indicates that the support of the Montenegrin DPS never entered the picture, such an election could be taken as a sign of discontent among Milosevic’s allies. Because the election for this position did not take place in an open election, the election procedures itself shows the degree of constitutional insignificance of this position, the whole charade indicating something very far from the infamous 104% from the 1990 open referendum ("first the Constitution, then the elections"). It is as if someone said, "O.K., lets get this things over with". On Tuesday, glamour was fabricated in the media, as if in a kind of virtual reality, through the use of TV questionnaires, telegrams of support and the speakers’ insistence on the historical significance of this event. One of the spontaneous moments of glee was noted when in the Serbian Parliament some MP’s (Jack) clapped their hands, while others (Jill) danced with delight.

Just like a provincial country, fair the election of our president is only a farcical introduction to the merry making and brawling that was to follow later on in the evening. In any case, the transfer of Slobodan Milosevic to a federal position, as the following pages of VREME testify, leaves many political questions unanswered — the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Serbia, probably to be held in September, the fight for the elections conditions, the continuation of the conflict in Montenegro, the new constitutional and political conflicts surrounding the federal government...

Premonitions in Zadar

"As they were walking down the main street of Zadar, gossiping (Mira Markovic and her cousin, in the Autumn of 1986), they stopped in front of a shop window in which the framed picture of Tito stood in a prominent place. Mirjana took a long look at the shop window, and turning slowly says: ‘This is how Slobo’s picture will hang one day!’

The cousin looked curiously, a little confused, having reason to even be afraid of what she just heard. That someone should dare to name the successor of Comrade Tito, the world leader, the father of the new Yugoslavia, ‘our past, present and future’, and to see her young, inexperienced husband in that position, really takes gall.

‘How do you mean’, the question followed, ‘that Slobodan will be the president of Serbia?’

‘This is how Slobo’s picture, just like Tito’s, will stand in a shop window’, Mirjana kept repeating absentmindedly, as if talking about things which are beyond doubt."

Quote from the book "He, She and Us" by Slavoljub Djukic