Branko Ruzic Resigns Parliamentary Seat After SPS Expulsion

Branko Ruzic, the former deputy president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, resigned his seat as a member of parliament in Serbia’s National Assembly on September 4. The resignation came a little over a week after the SPS Statutory Committee voted to expel him from the party he had belonged to for more than three decades, and Ruzic published the resignation letter himself on his Instagram account.

In the letter, addressed to the National Assembly, Ruzic noted that at the time of filing he was a member of the Ivica Dacic, Socialist Party of Serbia parliamentary group. “I, Branko Ruzic, member of parliament in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, as a member of the Ivica Dacic, Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) parliamentary group, hereby freely and unambiguously resign from the office of member of parliament,” the document reads. He also stated that he understood the resignation was irrevocable and that his mandate would end on the day it was filed.

The Announcement That Preceded the Move

Ruzic announced his departure from parliament as soon as he learned of the party leadership’s decision to expel him. “I will return my parliamentary mandate to the Party. I believe that is decent, civilized and the socialist thing to do. I do not want to keep the mandate as a privilege after leaving a party I belonged to for more than thirty years,” he said at the time.

The SPS Statutory Committee voted unanimously on August 31 to expel him, with all eleven members present. The party’s statement said Ruzic had “continuously and over a long period consciously and deliberately violated the provisions of the Statute, failed to fulfil his obligations to carry out the decisions of the party bodies and its unified policy, and in doing so caused enormous political damage to the SPS.”

Ruzic himself responded to the decision in terms that, in his own reading, went beyond party politics. “You can expel a man from a party with an administrative decision. You cannot expel an idea from a man,” he said of his expulsion.

A Rift That Began at a Protest

The conflict between Ruzic and the SPS leadership deepened after he took part in the large student and civic protest in Belgrade on March 15. Since then he had publicly called for the party to pursue an independent policy rather than remain, as he put it, part and parcel of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, describing the SPS’s role in the governing coalition as that of an “SNS branch office.”

Sources close to the Socialist Party of Serbia claim that removing Ruzic from the party amounted to what they described as “offering a sacrifice” to Aleksandar Vucic, alleging that the Socialist leader, Ivica Dacic, had promised the Serbian president the Ruzic matter would be resolved by September 1 at the latest. Neither the SPS nor the presidential office has confirmed or denied that claim in any statement issued so far.

Fallout for the Party Leadership

Ruzic’s expulsion did not pass without consequences inside the party itself. His removal was followed by the resignations of other SPS officials, a sign that the rift was not confined to one man but reached a wider circle of discontent within the Socialists’ ranks. Ruzic has said he intends to remain active in politics, even though he no longer holds a seat in parliament.

The resignation came at a moment when the political scene is already turning toward an election cycle: the presidential deadline for calling parliamentary elections points the calendar toward October 25, a date on which the SPS is expected to face voters without one of its most recognizable voices until recently. Whether Ruzic formalizes his next political step before October 25, or instead continues, as he has signaled, to champion his cause from outside the ranks of the party where he spent three decades, should become clear in the weeks leading up to election day.