Former leaders of Serbia’s Democratic Party contemplate fusion

Boris Tadic former Serbia’s President and ex DS leader and the current party head Zoran Lutovac told N1 360 Degrees political talks show on Thursday night the negotiations were under way to re-create the DS by the rebels’ come back.

The two said the idea behind the fusion of some organisations was to create an organisation which would become the primary option for democratic voters and to integrate forces against President Aleksandar Vucic who also heads the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

Tadic, who fled the Democrats to form the Social-Democratic Party, said the idea wasn’t new and that it had been an issue since the original DS’ split in four different organisations.

“We had opposing ideas about who had drifted away from the basic (DS’) principles. It’s time now to start negotiations (on unification),“ Tadic, who surprisingly lost presidential race in 2012 to Tomislav Nikolic of the SNS, after having a convincing advantage after the first round, said.

He denied any leader had the ambition to be the head of the old/new party.

Lutovac said the idea was for the DS to be in the heart of a civil option and that the aim was not for the leaders to return, but to create an organisation which democratic voters would see as a choice.

“The time for the idea has come. There were attempts in the past, but the circumstances have changed. The conditions are now in favour of forming a front able to challenge the pigheadedness of one man (Vucic),” Lutovac added.

During the last local elections in Belgrade the DS did not cross the threshold for the first time since 1990 and the first multi-party elections in Serbia, then the part of the former Yugoslav federation.

They scored poorly in the 2012 general vote as well, lost the presidential post and were on the brink of collapse.

Several high-ranked members, including former leaders, left the party to form new ones, neither of which recorded any serious result afterwards.

The current DS is a member of the newly created opposition Alliance for Serbia (SzS), together with some nationalist movements. But Lutovac said the merger of the opposition should happen on the basis of common interests, not on issues they disagreed on.

Those interests include the boycott of any elections under the current rules, fight for fair elections and free media and the removal of the regime in free and fair elections, both Tadic and Lutovac confirmed.

The idea on the unification of former Democrats has seemingly been revived following the anti-government protests going on every Saturday in Belgrade since December 8, and for weeks in some 60 other places in the country.