Čedomir Jovanović
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Čedomir Čeda Jovanović [listen] (born April 13, 1971 in Belgrade) is a Serbian politician. Adored and fiercely defended by his supporters, he is also much maligned and frequently blasted by his opponents. Serbian political scene, having witnessed its share of mavericks and renegades, has rarely produced a figure with ability to polarize public opinion to such an extent.
For someone who according to most polls enjoys the minuscule support of about 3-5% of Serbian voting population, he gets an extraordinary amount of media coverage - a testament to his ability to ruffle feathers and provoke reaction.
Born into a middle-class family (father Jovica was an architecht and economist, mother Milena also an economist), young Cedomir grew up in New Belgrade. He completed Ivan Gundulic Primary School with average grades. He then started attending 9th Belgrade Gymnasium but quickly transferred to 3rd Economics High School where he eventually graduated. Next came studies at University of Belgrade's Faculty of Economics, but he quit after only a week of classes. Jovanovic then started attending Belgrade's University of Arts dramaturgy program, from which he graduated in 1998 at the age of 27. He never worked in his chosen profession, writing only a couple of plays that were never staged nor published. During his student days he also worked as a journalist.
Early years in politics
Jovanović got involved in politics as a leader of student protests in Belgrade during the winter of 1996/97. His charisma, ambition, high energy and appealing looks clearly made him stand out among the masses. He soon took the reigns of the entire street revolt and became one of its most recognizable protagonists. Female protesters could be seen sporting badges proclaiming 'Marry me, Cedo!'. This newfound popularity didn't go unnoticed by Milosevic's police either, as he was arrested, questioned and roughed up several times.Throughout the 3-month demonstration he also grew close to Zoran Đinđić and the Democratic Party (DS). He eventually joined the party in 1998, and quickly rose up the ranks to become its vice-president in 2001.
Years in power 2000-2003
DOS parliamentary club chief
He was elected to Serbian Parliament after December 2000 elections, on the list of Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), and also held the post of DOS' parliamentary club leader until 2003. At only 29, he was the youngest person ever in Serbian politics to hold such a position.He led an extremely eventful life during this period for a simple parliamentary chief. On March 31, 2001, after masked government unit stormed the fortified Villa Mir attempting to arrest its resident Slobodan Milosevic, Jovanović was at the scene negotiating the former Yugoslav president into surrendering. He was reportedly shot at from a pistol by Milosevic's daughter Marija.
Other more colourful episodes around the same time included Jovanovic's jeep vehicle being blown up with an explosive device and his impulsive order to have a pedestrian walkway painted across Belgrade's Kralja Milana thoroughfare in front of the parliamentary building because he found it inconvenient to walk an extra 50 meters to the nearest traffic light when needing to cross the street. The crosswalk became known derisively as "Čeda's zebra".
Information would later come out about his other, more clandestine activities during this time.
Deputy Prime Minister
In March 2003, following the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, Jovanović advanced to the position of Deputy Prime Minister in the government of new PM Zoran Živković.It has been alleged that during his mandate as Member of Parliament, in addition to his regular duties Jovanović assumed a role of PM Djindjic government's liaison, dealing with and meeting individuals connected to Serbian organized crime circles.
When the press caught wind of this, it created a storm of controversy and raised many still not fully answered questions. Political opponents accused him of criminal involvement and providing favours for shady individuals such as Dušan Spasojević (late leader of the Zemun mafia clan) and Milorad Ulemek (now accused of assassination of Zoran Đinđić).
After continuous pressure from the media, Jovanović finally admitted to some meetings, but denied any wrongdoing, claiming these contacts were made on behalf of the government in order to curb mafia activities and to secure political stability from people of Milošević's era. During one of his speeches he stated: "My hands are dirty because I was cleaning up Serbia."
The electorate didn't exactly see it that way and Jovanović's popularity dropped drastically as a result of this episode.
Realizing this, the Democratic Party brass marginalized his role within its ranks before the parliamentary elections in December 2003 by not even entering his name on the party's electoral ballot. He did not complain, at least not publicly, opting to instead focus on the coming party congress in February 2004 which was to determine its new post-Djindjic leadership. Jovanović was hoping to get a seat on the main board but did not receive enough delegate support.
In opposition
Dissatisfied with party's new direction under the leadership of Boris Tadić, Jovanović criticized him publicly; most notably for his policy of political cohabitation with Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's government. Being a fierce Kostunica opponent, Jovanovic felt Democratic Party should actively seek ways to bring down his government, especially when Boris Tadic was elected President of the republic in June 2004. Couple of months after Tadic's inauguration, Jovanovic wrote his party colleague an open public letter[link] on a per tu basis criticizing his political choices. Tadic never even acknowledged the letter publicly until he was directly asked about it in Utisak nedelje political TV talk-show. He then admitted he hasn't really bothered to read it and added: "When someone writes a letter, supposedly to me, by first making sure it gets published in the papers, then that's really not a letter but a political bid".[link]Leaving DS
After his criticism was mostly ignored by other party colleagues as well, Jovanovic's next move was to form the "Liberal Democratic faction" within DS - knowingly breaching its statute in the process. The act was obviously not welcomed by the leadership and after tolerating him for a few months, DS finally expelled him December 3,2004.In the following period Jovanovic's political activity became pronouncly more direct and some would say extreme. He gave bombastic interviews and in his strongly worded press-releases he frequently went after PM Kostunica's government officials, Kostunica himself, and Serbian security apparatus. Another one of his favourite targets is Serbian Orthodox Church whom Jovanovic considers dishonest, backward and dogmatic. In July 2005, Čedomir Jovanović published a book Moj sukob sa prošlošću (My confrontation with the past). In this period he also came out in favour of Kosovo's independence, making him among only few Serbian politician of note to do so.
Founding LDP
Finally, on November 5th, 2005 Jovanović and his supporters founded the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to much fanfare, and Jovanović got elected as its first president at only 34.Soon after, in December, he was a subject of lengthy, very affirmative piece penned by Zoran Ćirjaković in influential American weekly magazine Newsweek [link] which, among other things, Jovanovic used to further reiterate his stance on Kosovo and to declare his opinion that Bosnian Serb ties with Belgrade should effectively be severed.
Personal
In late May 2003, Jovanovic married his longtime girlfriend Jelena Savić. The couple has a son and a daughter.External links
- [Čedomir Jovanović] official site
- [Center for Modern Politics]
- [Lik i delo - Čedomir Jovanović], Vreme, (issue# 523), January 11, 2001
- [LDP official site] (in Serbian)
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