Vojislav Koštunica
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Dr. Vojislav Koštunica [listen] (Serbian: Војислав Коштуница) (pronounced /ˈvoisˌlɑv koˈʃtunitˌsɑ/, born March 24, 1944, Belgrade, Serbia) is the current Prime Minister of Serbia. He was also the last President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, succeeding Slobodan Milošević.
A law graduate from the University of Belgrade, obtained PhD at the Faculty of Law, he lost his job in 1974 after criticizing Tito's Communist government. In 1989, he became one of the founders of the Democratic Party. Later he became the leader of the new Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), of which he is still president.
Koštunica was a populist politician with no connection to the old Communist Party (from which Slobodan Milošević's party originated), supported both by the "democratic" and the "nationalistic" voters, so the Democratic Opposition of Serbia backed him in the presidential election of September 2000.
After turbulent events of October 2000, Koštunica was finally declared the winner of the election and remained president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 2003, when the state was replaced by Serbia and Montenegro and the position he held was abolished. Koštunica opposed the extradition of his predecessor, Slobodan Milošević, and has stated his opposition to the Hague Tribunal several times. He also refused to remove Milošević's former police chief Rade Marković from office.
Following the parliamentary elections in December 2003, in which the DSS emerged as the largest of the democratic parties, Koštunica became prime minister in March 2004 at the head of the new minority government of Serbia with the support of the Socialist Party of Serbia.
Following the bad showing of the government candidate Dragan Maršićanin in the Serbian presidential elections, 2004, Koštunica announced that fresh parliamentary elections should be expected by the end of the year just following the adoption of a new Constitution for Serbia.
Since then the minority government of Vojislav Koštunica has maintained a frail coalition government and most importantly by being tolerated by the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadić.
He acknowledged that the work of his predecessor wasn't quite as he thought before he took office:
Zoran Djindjic was the first to take on this difficult task of leading the government in very unstable times. Probably his energy and commitment made it possible for things to move forward. It is one thing to watch it from aside and it is completely different to be in it. I understand that now when I am the Prime Minister and I see things a bit differently. He was terribly important for the whole process. [B92]
Koštunica lives with his wife and fellow lawyer, Zorica Radović, Ph.D.
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| Presidents of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia |
|
|---|---|
| Ćosić | Lilić | Milošević | Koštunica |
| Prime Ministers of the Republic of Serbia |
| |
|---|---|---|
| Zelenović | Božović | Šainović | Marjanović | Minić | Đinđić | Živković | Koštunica | ||
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