Ljajic Hands SDPS to Radivojevic After 30 Years

Rasim Ljajic no longer leads the Social Democratic Party of Serbia (SDPS). The party is now headed by its former deputy president, Jug Radivojevic, a theater and film director who also runs the Belgrade Drama Theatre (BDP). The change was confirmed within the party on Sunday, August 2, 2026. Ljajic had actually submitted his resignation weeks earlier, so the public learned the name of his successor before it learned the handover had already taken place.

The reason he gave has nothing to do with the party. Ljajic has been president of Partizan Football Club since October 22, 2024, and deputy president of the umbrella Yugoslav Sports Society Partizan since December 2022. Between those two roles, he says, he cannot also run a party through a campaign.

The party has to prepare for elections even though we still do not know when they will be, but they will certainly happen. That is why I think it is more honest for someone else to take on the role of party president and dedicate themselves to the campaign, because my obligations at Partizan mean I cannot fully commit to that.

That is how Ljajic explained his departure. As of August 2, no date had been set for early parliamentary elections, but his reasoning assumed they were coming regardless.

The post had been frozen for years

The resignation formalizes a situation that had already lasted more than a few weeks. Ljajic put his party duties on hold the moment he moved to Partizan, back in late 2022, as he said himself.

When I went to Partizan, I froze all my duties in the party. But the situation now is that the party has to prepare for the upcoming elections, and we do not know when they will be, but it is certain they will happen. The work has to be done at full throttle, not halfway. I am engaged in other positions and cannot dedicate enough of myself to work in the party. Jug has been appointed to lead SDPS in my place, and he stays in that position until further notice.

The phrase “until further notice” is the most telling detail in the whole story. Radivojevic was not elected at a party congress as the choice for the next cycle, he was appointed for an indefinite period, until the party organizes itself for the campaign. That means SDPS enters the pre-election year with interim leadership rather than a new leader confirmed at a party assembly.

Who is Jug Radivojevic

Radivojevic was born in Vranje, lives and works in Belgrade, and had served as SDPS deputy president until now.

• graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU) in Belgrade, majoring in theater and radio directing
• heads the Belgrade Drama Theatre and has received numerous awards for his work in theater and film
• is the son of Radoslav Radivojevic, longtime director of the Vranje theater “Bora Stankovic”
• sits on the board of directors of Red Star Football Club (FK Crvena zvezda) and chairs the Red Star Foundation

That last point is the most interesting piece for the political side of the story. Ljajic is leaving the top of the party because of Partizan, and his successor sits on the board of Red Star. The kind of sports involvement that once forced one man out was no obstacle at all for the man who replaced him.

Why the handover matters

Because it is the first one. SDPS was created in 2009 through the transformation of the Sandzak Democratic Party, which Ljajic founded in 1996 after splitting from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA). Thirty years passed between that split and this resignation, and the same man led the party the entire time.

He led it while serving as minister for human and minority rights in the Council of Ministers of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, as minister for national and ethnic communities in the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), as deputy prime minister of Serbia, and as minister of foreign and domestic trade, tourism and telecommunications. Since 2000 he has also been deputy president of the Coordination Body for the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. Across three different state frameworks and a long line of governments, the one constant in his biography was the presidency of his own party.

What finally moved him out of that position was not an election result, nor pressure from within the party, nor a shift in some coalition. It was a football club.

What comes next

Radivojevic takes over the party with no elections called and no publicly announced deadline. The first real test for the new leadership will be a practical one: whether SDPS manages to build a field structure before an election date appears. Ljajic himself set the standard when he said the work has to be done at full throttle, not halfway.