Djilas Threatens Legal Action Against DS Over Video

Dragan Djilas, president of the Freedom and Justice Party (SSP) and top of the European Serbia list, announced legal action on October 19 against the Democratic Party (DS) over a video accusing the SSP of “driving children out of here.” DS Secretary General Dusan Kostadinovic answered him the same day in an open letter, leaving two opposition lists in open conflict six days before the October 25 election.

The trigger was a video shared on X by DS official Ivan Atanaskovic. It repeats the line “The Freedom and Justice Party drives children away from here,” with the addition “because SNS cannot do it alone.” Atanaskovic wrote in the comments that the video was not his, but that he liked it. The available sources do not say who made the video.

What did Djilas tell the Democratic Party?

In his post on X, Djilas addressed Dusan Petrovic, whom he calls the “real owner” of DS, and Srdjan Milivojevic, whom he calls the party’s formal president. He rejected the accusations in the video and replied to the Democratic Party this way:

“Today you crossed every line by publishing a video against the SSP and European Serbia, a video accusing us of driving children out of the country. Unlike you, who clung to the students like ticks, pushed your members, even from the party’s Political Council, onto the Student List and are now waiting for a chance to get a parliamentary group, we have not hidden behind anyone.”

He announced legal steps in the same post: “Because of the falsehoods and accusations made in this video, we will launch the appropriate legal proceedings against you.” Djilas does not specify what kind of proceedings he means, or whether it would be a lawsuit. He addresses Petrovic and Milivojevic rather than the author of the video, who remains unknown.

He also said the Democratic Party had run a campaign against his list:

“You, however, saw in us the greatest enemy. Throughout the campaign you spent your time, energy and resources on a war against us instead of fighting the regime of Aleksandar Vucic. We believe that you, together with your newly arrived comrades from Boza Prelevic’s group, have done enormous political damage to the students.”

How did Kostadinovic respond?

In his letter, Kostadinovic called Djilas’s post an incoherent outburst and rejected the claim that someone owns the party:

“We know it is hard for you to believe, since you obviously understand political organizing differently, but the Democratic Party has no ‘owner’. It has members, bodies and people who make decisions. Your need to find a boss for every party says far more about your understanding of politics than about us.”

Kostadinovic also says party branch offices were made available to students preparing for the election, and that DS members work with them. He then put questions to Djilas about his relationship with the Student List:

“Do you truly believe that nobody notices the obvious cooperation you maintain with Aleksandar Vucic’s mafia dictatorship in your approach to the Student List? Do you think nobody notices that the narrative you push, including in this statement I am replying to, is exactly the same one pushed by Pink and Informer, only for an audience that does not watch those channels.”

A personal reply from Petrovic or Milivojevic could not be found in the available sources. The secretary general spoke on behalf of the Democratic Party.

What did Djilas say in Nis the day before?

The conflict did not start with the video. The evening before, on October 18, Djilas spoke at a European Serbia rally in Nis and laid out how he sees the opposition’s electoral math:

“The only way to change the government in Serbia on October 25 is for the Student List to be stronger than the SNS, and for European Serbia to be stronger than the SPS. That is why I say clearly and loudly: everyone who works to make our list weaker than the SPS, to make it fall below the threshold, is working for Vucic, working for the foreign power that wants to separate Serbia from Europe.”

According to the polls he cited, European Serbia’s potential is around five percent, and he says a campaign is being run against the list claiming it will not clear the threshold. At the same rally, list leader Zdravko Ponos, president of the Serbia Center party (SRCE), addressed voters who want a European path:

“The other half of that step is needed too, the one that will determine the direction we are going in. If it is enough for someone to be promised a referendum after which things can go either way, then let them give their whole vote to the SL. And those who do not want to give their whole vote for half a step, let them give that vote to European Serbia.”

Ponos also warned that if European Serbia stays below the threshold and cannot form a government on its own, the Student List could be pushed into a coalition with the SPS. “Is that what we are fighting for? For the SPS to survive, or for Serbia to survive,” he asked.

What is the context of the conflict?

BBC News in Serbian recalls that the Democratic Party was the first to give the students unconditional support, both before the election was called and before the Student List candidates were announced. Djilas now claims that DS placed its own members on the Student List, among them members of its Political Council.

At the same time, as BBC reports, supporters of the Student List accuse the European Serbia coalition of being Vucic’s Trojan horse, which the coalition denies. Marinika Tepic, one of the European Serbia leaders, said on the morning of October 19, in a statement carried by N1, that Vucic falls under only one condition:

“It is crystal clear that Vucic falls only if the Student List and European Serbia together win more seats than the current government. There is no other way. That is why it is important that everyone who wants Serbia in Europe votes for European Serbia in the election, so that we are as strong as possible in the Assembly, because that will also make a stronger and uncompromising European policy.”

The election is scheduled for October 25. Whether Djilas will actually launch proceedings against DS, and who they would target, was not stated in his post.