Entire SPS Committee in Doljevac Resigns Over Ruzic

The entire leadership of the Socialist Party of Serbia’s municipal committee in Doljevac has resigned, joining a group of officials leaving the party over the expulsion of Branko Ruzic. According to a statement from the municipal committee released on September 8, the resignations were submitted the day before. The decision was signed first by committee president Nenad Stankovic, followed by SPS youth wing president Kristina Stojanovic, council members Aleksandar Trajkovic and Milan Blagojevic, and several other members of the municipal committee.

The statement says the decision is a direct consequence of disagreement with the way Ruzic was expelled from the party, and with the treatment of a man who, the statement says, made a significant contribution to the Socialist Party of Serbia through his years of political work.

“It is shameful to hear, on a day like this, certain SPS officials taking the liberty to criticize Branko Ruzic, who knows 90 percent of the membership, when those criticizing him have not visited a single municipal committee to hear the problems we have, while Ruzic did that regularly and stayed in contact with everyone, and that is something ordinary people respect in him,” the signatories say in the statement.

They also framed their departure from their posts as a personal obligation to show their disagreement with the way the party leadership acted. “The resignations submitted yesterday represent an expression of personal conviction and political responsibility. We do not want to stay silent when we believe an injustice has been committed and when the current SPS leadership is simply carrying out orders coming from another political center,” the statement from the SPS members in Doljevac reads.

Expulsion Was Unanimous, With All Eleven Commission Members Present

The trigger for the whole wave of resignations was the August 31 decision of the SPS Statutory Commission, which unanimously, with all eleven members present, expelled Branko Ruzic. The commission’s explanation stated that Ruzic had knowingly and deliberately violated the provisions of the Statute over an extended period, that he had failed to respect the obligation to carry out the decisions of party bodies and the party’s unified policy, and that, in the commission’s assessment, he had thereby caused political damage to the SPS.

After his expulsion, Ruzic announced he would give up his parliamentary mandate, and he did so on September 4, when he submitted his resignation as a member of the National Assembly, as Srpske Vesti reported last week.

Ten Officials in Seven Days

Doljevac is not an isolated case. Within a week of the expulsion, at least ten SPS officials from different parts of Serbia submitted resignations from one or more party positions, with some also leaving the membership, citing Ruzic’s expulsion as either the direct trigger or one of the reasons:

• Dejan Curcic, a Main Board member from Kursumlija, left the party
• Ivan Djokovic, the former deputy prime minister of the Vojvodina government, resigned from all party positions on September 2 but remained an SPS member
• Mateja Rankovic and Milutin Ruzic, Main Board members, submitted irrevocable resignations from their positions and from the membership on September 5
• Andrija Radivojevic, president of the municipal committee in Paracin, gave up his positions the same day, though his explanation was not tied exclusively to the Ruzic case
• Branko Prodanovic, president of the municipal committee in Zubin Potok, resigned and left the party on September 6
• Ninoslav Djeric, Miljan Aritonovic, Sladjan Maric and Nenad Savic, officials from Kosovo, resigned from their positions on September 7, with Djeric and Aritonovic explicitly stating that they remain party members

According to his own explanation, Radivojevic had already been unhappy with the direction the SPS was taking for some time, and the events surrounding Ruzic only reinforced a decision he says he had already been considering. He also said a decision of such political weight should have been the subject of a serious debate at the Main Board, with Ruzic himself present.

Who Stays, Who Leaves

The list of resignations also shows that not every case is identical. Djokovic and Aritonovic explicitly stated that they are, for now, remaining SPS members, while Curcic, Rankovic, Milutin Ruzic, Prodanovic, Maric and Savic announced they are leaving the membership as well. Djeric’s submitted letter did not state that he was leaving the party.

A separate case is Milan Stepanovic, who issued a joint statement with Curcic announcing his departure from the SPS. Vladan Zagradjanin, president of the Executive Board of the SPS Main Board, later claimed that Stepanovic did not leave the party over Ruzic, but had earlier been removed from the head of the Kursumlija municipal committee over a dispute regarding a letter sent to party headquarters. Stepanovic disputed part of those claims and stood by his own version of events, so his case, because of the conflicting accounts, is not counted in the minimum total of ten resignations.

Ruzic himself is not part of that count, since he did not resign his membership but was expelled from the SPS by decision of the Statutory Commission. His resignation from the parliamentary mandate is a separate consequence of that expulsion.

Does the Wave of Resignations End Here?

The wave has so far reached municipal organizations in Kursumlija, Paracin, Cukarica, Zubin Potok, Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovska Kamenica, Strpce and, most recently, Doljevac. Among those who gave up their positions are Main Board members, Executive Board members of the Main Board, and a former deputy prime minister of the Vojvodina provincial government, which places the Statutory Commission’s decision in a broader context than a dispute over a single official.

Part of the explanation given by the officials who left goes beyond the Ruzic case, according to their own statements, and adds criticism of the direction the SPS is taking, of how the party treats dissenting opinions within its ranks, of its cooperation with the SNS, and of its policy toward Kosovo. Whether the list stays at Doljevac and the ten cases recorded so far, or spreads to new municipal committees, remains a question the SPS leadership will have to answer in the days ahead.