The Departure of Dr Minovic

When asked by reporters on Friday about the number of people who had it in for him, Zivorad Minovic only smiled and shrugged his shoulders. A few minutes later, his resignation from the post of director general of Politika was made public. This marks the end of a big, by no means simple, story, and the official capitulation of the man who for years formed public opinion in Serbia .

For those who are familiar with the situation, Minovic's fate was finally sealed the moment the federal leadership made it clear, through its information minister, that it did not wish him to head one of Serbia's leading institutions.

The message was quite clear: Politika's fate was linked with Minovic's departure and, thus, he no longer had much choice. That he was well aware of this, is illustrated by the fact that when he submitted his resignation at Politika's coordinating committee session on Friday he said that the house must be protected both from internal and external divisions.

Minovic's motives however are still not clear. Some say his actions should be linked to some kind of "secret deals" he made with the federal leadership. Others maintain that both leaderships were too intent on getting rid of him to think of making any deals with him and that the decision to step down should be solely attributed to Minovic's awareness of the rules of the game and his conviction that this was the best moment to retreat "without incurring any major losses".

In other words. Minovic could have fought on, but it would have cost him far more than this retreat. Furthermore, as he points out in his statement, he is stepping down at a moment which for him and the collective "represents a great satisfaction and an irrefutable confirmation of the correctness of this step". It is clear that Minovic could achieve no more and he was well aware of this.

Neverthelesss, the fact remains that Zika Minovic's departure marks the end of a whole epoch in the history of the biggest media house in the Balkans. But neither of them will be greatly regretted.