Eurasia Press & News
Serbia’s former president looks likely to abandon his ambitions to remain at the helm of the Democratic Party and cede the post to Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas.On the eve of the deadline for filing candidacy submissions in the Democratic Party leadership elections, the party leader, Boris Tadic, has decided to quit the race, Balkan Insight has learned from a senior official.
According to the official, the reason for his withdrawal is his declining support across Serbia.
Tadic will instead take on a senior position in the party as an honourary president or head of the party’s Political Council, which is a position with no real power.
His rival, Dragan Djilas, the Mayor of Belgrade and the party’s deputy president, will then take over the leadership of the party, according to this source.
The party elections are scheduled for November 10 and Djilas already unofficially enjoys the support of a majority of local Democratic Party headquarters.
The total number of the DS municipality headquarters in Serbia is 170.
Since the May general elections, party officials have been publicly bickering and blaming each other for the party’s defeat and loss of power.
Tadic was widely blamed for the election loss and for having concentrated too much power in his hands.
Djilas, who won the Belgrade elections in May and was appointed Mayor for the second time, believes the party needs reforms.
On September 8, the party held a congress to analyze the causes and consequences of their defeat. However, the split among them remained deep. The party then scheduled new elections for the leadership.
In talks with journalists on Wednesday, Tadic intimated that he was ready to withdraw from the race and support Djilas under certain conditions.
These include: the party to be profiled as a social democratic Party; the party’s presidency to have more power; internal control of the performance of party’s officials to be established.
