Ruzic Backs Student List, Rejects Lists 1 and 2

Branko Ruzic, a former member of parliament and former vice president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), who was expelled from the party, said he will back the Student List in the October 25 election. In an interview with the FoNet news agency, in a new episode of the series “Kvaka 23,” he also said he will not vote for Aleksandar Vucic or for the lists numbered 1 and 2.

Until now we had reported only that Ruzic is founding a new party. His choice for the election is something he spelled out for the first time in this conversation.

Who Ruzic will not vote for

Asked who he will vote for, Ruzic first recalled his earlier statement that he will never again vote for Vucic. Then he answered:

“If I’m not voting for Vucic, then I’m certainly not voting for list number 1 or list number 2, because that is Aleksandar Vucic, and maybe there are a few others that are his as well.”

He attached a sober caveat to his support for the Student List. “I will support the student list in the election, but I don’t expect anyone to be in a position to declare victory right away,” Ruzic told FoNet.

Why he thinks the real election is still to come

Ruzic does not believe the outcome will be settled on October 25. In his words, that day could be the end, or the beginning of the end, of Aleksandar Vucic’s rule, and nothing will be the same afterward. He explained it this way:

“I think the first real election will come only next year, because whoever wins and ends up in a position to form the next government, that government won’t last long. We must not forget that a presidential election will be held in the meantime.”

He went a step further and predicted the fate of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). “After the election there will be no more SNS, SNS is a project that will not exist once Vucic falls from power,” he said.

Students, lustration and the political price

Ruzic says he backs the students even though the part of their program dealing with lustration applies to him as well. At the same time, he does not put lustration first. “Still, lustration is not more important than the existing institutions that we have to heal so they can function, and so that those who committed crimes are sanctioned,” he noted.

He says he paid a political price because he spoke, even two years ago, about young people as the future of Serbia. On the students, he added:

“As for the students, they earned their authority on their own. I support and understand their position that they don’t want politicians getting involved. I don’t impose myself and never have.”

With the students, he says, he would like to talk “about Serbia, about what needs to be done.”

A new party and the break with Dacic

On his political future, Ruzic said work is under way on the program, organization and infrastructure of a new social democratic political organization. By his account, many people from other parties are involved in the process, along with people who never held a party card. “There are also people from my former political option,” he said. Asked whether the recent resignations of some SPS members laid the foundation for the new party, he did not answer directly, but said he will not call on anyone to leave the SPS.

He described his split with SPS president Ivica Dacic as fundamentally political. “I have known Ivica for a very long time and very well, and I don’t intend to turn that personal relationship into some political showdown. But our political disagreement is fundamental,” he explained. Ruzic calls the ruling party’s campaign radical in tone, full of anger, verbal violence and labeling.

What he says about corruption

Ruzic assessed that corruption in Serbia is systemic and has peaked in the last several years, but he rejects personal responsibility for it as a former cabinet member and official of the ruling party:

“If I’m guilty of something, it’s certainly not corruption. I did not take part in corruption. I sat in government and worked in accordance with the law. Had I done anything unlawful, I would probably have ended up behind bars by now because of these ‘friends’ from the previous government.”

The text of the interview published by the media contains no response from the SNS or the SPS to Ruzic’s statements.