Boris Tadić
Boris Tadić (Serbian Cyrillic: Борис Тадић, pronounced [bǒris tǎdiːt͡ɕ]; born 15 January 1958) is a Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia from 2004 to 2012.
Boris Tadić
Predrag Marković (acting)
Velimir Radojević
Prvoslav Davinić
Ivan Marković
Office abolished
15 January 1958
Sarajevo, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia
- Maša
- Vanja
- Ljubomir Tadić (father)
- Nevenka Kićanović (mother)
Born in Sarajevo, he graduated from the University of Belgrade with a degree in psychology. He later worked as a journalist, military psychologist, and teacher at the First Belgrade Gymnasium. Tadić joined the Democratic Party (DS) in 1990 and was elected to the National Assembly after the 1993 election. After the downfall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, he was appointed as the minister of telecommunications in the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a role which he held until 2003, after which he was appointed minister of defence in the government of Serbia. Tadić was elected president of DS a year after the assassination of Zoran Đinđić after previously serving as a member of its provisional leadership. He stood as a candidate for DS in the 2004 presidential elections, which he won after beating Tomislav Nikolić of the Serbian Radical Party in the second round.
During his first mandate, he advocated cooperation and reconciliation of the former Yugoslav countries, became the first Serbian head of state or head of government to visit the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial, and launched an initiative for the Serbian parliament to adopt a resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre.[1] He successfully ran for re-election in 2008 after again beating Nikolić in the second round. During his second mandate, DS formed a coalition government with the Socialist Party of Serbia, its former opponent, which signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), while the EU abolished visas for Serbian citizens travelling to Schengen Area countries and Serbia received EU candidate status. Additionally, Serbia also completed its obligations to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).[2] The period during his second mandate was also characterised by the challenges of the Kosovo declaration of independence and the global financial crisis, leading to low rates of economic growth.[2]
After being pressured by protests that were organised by Nikolić's Serbian Progressive Party in 2011, Tadić announced that snap elections will be held in 2012.[3][4] He lost in the second round to Nikolić, who succeeded him as president of Serbia. Tadić was replaced by Dragan Đilas as the president of DS in November 2012, after which Tadić unsuccessfully sought to become the party's president again in 2014. He then left DS and formed the New Democratic Party, later renamed to Social Democratic Party, which remained a parliamentary party up to the 2020 election, which it boycotted. A self-described liberal,[5] he is an advocate of closer ties with the European Union (EU), supports the accession of Serbia to the European Union,[6] and is widely regarded as pro-Western-orientated,[7][8][9] while favouring balanced relations with Russia, China, United States, and the European Union.[10]
Early life[edit]
Tadić was born in Sarajevo, the capital of the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a republic within the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. His father, Ljubomir, was a philosopher and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. His mother, Nevenka, is a psychologist. His maternal grandfather and up to six other relatives were killed by the Croatian Ustaše during World War II.[11]
The Tadićs are descendants of the Serb clan of Piva, in the region of Old Herzegovina, Montenegro. The family's slava (patron saint) is Saint John the Baptist.[12] His parents frequently relocated between various cities and had moved to Sarajevo from Paris, where they pursued their doctoral studies, only a few days prior to his birth. Tadić and his family moved to Belgrade when he was three years old, and his father got a job at the newspaper Liberation (Oslobođenje).[13][14]
Tadić finished Pera Popović Aga (today Mika Petrović Alas)[15] elementary school and matriculated at the First Belgrade Gymnasium in Dorćol. During his teenage years he played water polo for VK Partizan, but had to quit due to injuries. He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy with a degree in psychology, specifically social psychology in the department of clinical psychology.
He was arrested during his studies in July 1982 for protesting the arrest of a group of students, arrested for protesting against martial law in Poland and in support of the Solidarity movement. Tadić spent one month in penal labour prison in Padinska Skela.[16][17]
He worked as a journalist, military clinical psychologist and as a teacher of psychology at the First Belgrade Gymnasium.[15] Until 2003, Tadić also worked at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the University of Arts in Belgrade as a lecturer of political advertising. He is a Senior Network Member at the European Leadership Network (ELN).[18]
Post-presidency[edit]
2012 elections and aftermath[edit]
On 5 April 2012, a day after announcing his decision, Tadić submitted his resignation to the speaker of parliament, Slavica Đukić-Dejanović, who then took over as acting president. This led to bringing forward the presidential election[80] to coincide with the parliamentary election on 6 May.[81]
Amid controversy regarding the legitimacy of the third mandate and the legality of certain decisions,[82] incumbent Tadić lost the presidential elections to his opponent, Tomislav Nikolić from the Serbian Progressive Party. Nikolić won 49.7% of the votes in the runoff vote, versus 47% for Tadić, according to data from the Serbian Center for Free Elections and Democracy.[83] The result was considered somewhat of a surprise, as Tadić had exploited his resignation for the presidential vote to coincide with parliamentary elections.
Tadić was criticised both inside and outside the party for the manoeuvre of calling early presidential elections without a clear goal, and entering them with over-confidence.[84] Dragan Đilas, long-time mayor of Belgrade and one of rare Democrats who remained in his seat after 2012 elections, announced that he would challenge Tadić in December party elections. After a period of gauging the odds, it became obvious that Đilas would receive majority support. Before the electoral conference, Đilas and Tadić reached a face-saving agreement whereby Tadić would step down from the race and remain the party's honorary president, and Đilas thus became the only major candidate.[85] Đilas was elected president of the Democratic Party on 25 November 2012.[86]
New Democratic Party[edit]
In early 2014, after losing the internal reelections in the Democratic Party to Dragan Đilas,[87] Tadić resigned from his position of honorary president and left the party.[88] Subsequently, a number of prominent party members defected from the party and stated that they intend to form a list in the forthcoming parliamentary election with Tadić as its leader. A coalition was agreed upon with the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina. A political party, named the New Democratic Party, was then formed and registered.[89] In the same year the party was renamed Social Democratic Party (Serbia). In the 2023 Serbian parliamentary election, SDS took part as part of the Good Morning Serbia alliance.
Policy and criticism[edit]
Coalition with the Socialist Party of Serbia[edit]
Following the 2008 election, Tadić's Democratic Party was unable to form a pro-European government with the hard-line Liberal Democratic Party. Faced with the possibility of a eurosceptic government led by the Democratic Party of Serbia, the Serbian Radical Party and the post-Milošević Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), Tadić proposed a coalition with the SPS. On 7 June 2008 at an assembly of the Main Board of the Democratic Party, Tadić compared the DS and the SPS saying that both grieved over the loss of their presidents, Đinđić and Milošević. His address was heavily criticised by members of the Liberal Democratic Party, the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and the Social Democratic Union.[90][91]
On 18 October 2008 Tadić and Ivica Dačić, President of the Socialist Party of Serbia, signed a Declaration of Political Reconciliation drafted in July,[92] agreeing on further EU integration and negotiations with Kosovo based on UN Resolution 1244.[93] The Declaration was again viewed as exonerating Milošević's regime and the G17 Plus, the Serbian Renewal Movement and League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina refused to sign it despite supporting the government.[94][95] It was also criticised by the right-wing Dveri and the Serbian Radical Party who called the declaration a reconciliation of the two wings of the League of Communists who split at the 8th Session.[96][97] Tadić defended the reconciliation after the 2012 presidential election reiterating that Serbia was in need of consensus-building policies.[98]
On 4 August 2007, Tadić was awarded the European Prize for Political Culture that is given by the Swiss Foundation Hans Ringier of the Ringier Publishing House in Locarno. Previously it was awarded to Jean-Claude Juncker. Tadić decided to donate the financial part of the award for humanitarian purposes for the maternity hospital in a town near Gračanica.[119][120]
Tadić received the Quadriga award in September 2008, an annual German award sponsored by Werkstatt Deutschland, a non-profit organisation based in Berlin. The award recognises four people or groups for their commitment to innovation, renewal, and a pioneering spirit through political, economic, and cultural activities. The other three winners were Wikipedia, represented by Jimmy Wales; Eckart Höfling, Franciscan and director; and Peter Gabriel, musician and human rights activist. The award given to Tadić was named The Courage of Perseverance and was presented by Heinz Fischer, the Federal President of Austria.[121]
In March 2010, Tadić received the Steiger Award Europe of the Rhine-Ruhr for "respectfulness, openness, humanity, and tolerance".[122]
In 2011, Tadić won the North-South Prize awarded by the Council of Europe and distinguishing his deep commitment and actions for the promotion and protection of human rights, defence of pluralist democracy, and the strengthening partnership of the north–south solidarity.
In 2012, in Brussels, Tadić, together with the ex-President of Croatia Ivo Josipović, was awarded the European Medal of Tolerance by the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, in recognition of the Balkan statesmen's "significant contribution to promoting, seeking, safeguarding or maintaining Tolerance and Reconciliation on the European continent".[123]