Vuk Drašković
Vuk Drašković ( Serbian - Cyrillic Вук Драшковић ; born November 29, 1946 in Međa , Vojvodina , SFR Yugoslavia ) is a Serbian politician and writer. He was Foreign Minister of Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia .
Life
Communist era
Drašković was born in Međa (Међа) near Žitište in the province of Vojvodina . In 1968 he received his law degree from the University of Belgrade . From 1969 to 1980 he worked as a journalist for the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug .
Between 1970 and 1980 he wrote five novels. He was also a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party .
The time from 1990
In 1990 Drašković and Vojislav Šešelj founded the Serbian Renewal Movement (Srpski Pokret Obnove, SPO), a nationalist-monarchist party. The party unsuccessfully participated in the first democratic elections of the post-communist era, which were held on December 9, 1990. After this failure, Drašković tried to overthrow the Serbian President Slobodan Milošević by means of protest actions . During a mass demonstration in Belgrade on March 9, 1991, the Serbian police intervened and clashes ensued, so that the Yugoslav People's Army finally intervened.
At that time, Drašković was clearly oriented towards nationalism. At the same time he urged a clear democratization and cooperation with the states of the West in order to preserve the Yugoslav federal state. Due to his often emotional, poetic rhetoric, however, he drew the charge of extremism and nationalist hardlining.
In 1991 he turned against the war, in particular against the Serbian attacks on Vukovar . In 1992 he called on the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to oppose nationalism and was the first Serbian politician to point out war crimes on his own side. Drašković and his wife Danica personally paid a heavy price for their opposition to Slobodan Milošević. In 1993 they were arrested, beaten and taken to a maximum security prison. After a hunger strike, pressure from opposition parties and the international community, he was finally released.
In 1996, the SPO formed the opposition Zajedno Alliance together with the Democratic Party of Zoran Đinđić and the Citizens' Alliance of Vesna Pešić , which achieved some successes in the local elections in November. However, the parties soon fell out, and in the 1997 parliamentary elections the SPO stood alone. In January 1998 the SPO was integrated into a coalition by the Serbian Socialist Party Milošević. Drašković himself became Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia in early 1999. This was in response to Milošević's call for national unity in the face of the Kosovo conflict. When NATO intervened in Kosovo, however, there was another break with Milošević, and the SPO rejoined the opposition.
Drašković survived two assassinations on October 3, 1999 and June 15, 2000. Four of his closest collaborators were murdered. Charges were later brought against Milošević and Milorad Ulemek in this regard. Ulemek was sentenced to 40 years in prison and Milošević died in custody.
The time after Milošević
Drašković has a split relationship with most personalities on the political stage in Serbia, which fluctuates between passionate confrontation and open cooperation. Drašković stayed away from the democratic opposition movement that formed in 2000 and toppled Milošević, which he later recognized as a serious mistake. During the following three years the Drašković party therefore played only a subordinate role in Serbian politics.
In autumn 2002 Drašković attempted a comeback by running as one of 11 candidates in the Serbian presidential elections (which ultimately failed due to insufficient participation). Despite a professionally designed election campaign in which he changed his demeanor and moderated his rhetoric, he only achieved 4.5% of the vote.
The next opportunity arose at the Serbian parliamentary elections in 2003. Drašković and his SPO formed an alliance with the conservative party “ New Serbia ”. The success was modest, but it was enough to participate in a minority government under Vojislav Koštunica , whereby the right-wing extremist SRS of Vojislav Šešelj could be kept in the opposition. Drašković himself became the Serbian Foreign Minister.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arno Weckbauer, Frank Hoffmeister: The development of political parties in the former Yugoslavia . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1997, ISBN 978-3-486-56336-8 , p. 47 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Sabrina P. Ramet : The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918-2004 . Indiana University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-253-34656-8 , pp. 358 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Drašković, Vuk |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Serbian writer and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 29, 1946 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Međa , SFR Yugoslavia |