NIN: Milos Jovanovic Resigns as Head of New DSS
Weekly NIN reports that the New DSS president is stepping down a day after the election. Jovanovic himself confirmed only that he is leaving public life.
The weekly NIN reports that Milos Jovanovic is resigning as president of New DSS. Jovanovic himself confirmed in a written reply to the magazine’s reporter only that he is withdrawing from public life. Nova.rs carried the news at 2:14 p.m. on October 26 and Danas at 3:16 p.m., a day after the snap parliamentary election held on Sunday, October 25.
What did Jovanovic actually confirm?
The word resignation comes from NIN. When the reporter called him, Jovanovic answered with a message:
“Thank you, but I am withdrawing from public life. I have nothing new to say, and I think I have talked enough over all these past years. Thank you for the call anyway. Respectfully, Milos Jovanovic”
The message says nothing about his post in the party. Withdrawal from public life is what Jovanovic wrote himself, while Nova.rs, Danas and K1 attributed to NIN the claim that he is resigning as head of New DSS. None of the published sources contains a confirmation, from him or from the party, that the resignation has been formally submitted.
What did he say on election night?
Jovanovic led the “Authentic Right” list, which failed to clear the three percent threshold and will have no deputies in the new National Assembly. At a press conference on Sunday evening he said that, going by the sample available at the time, the list had won about 1.5 percent of the vote. That figure comes from his remarks on election night, not from official results, which the Republic Electoral Commission has yet to declare.
At the same press conference he took responsibility for the result and congratulated the winner:
“I congratulate the Student List, which won this election and which will, in all likelihood, take over power and responsibility for running the country”
According to Nova.rs, he also thanked citizens for the high turnout and the democratic will they showed, and said he believed the new government would run the country democratically and that there would be media pluralism.
He described the list’s future this way:
“Now we will slowly return to politics, to our political convictions, regardless of our result, which is extremely bad and for which we fully bear responsibility”
Both Nova.rs and K1 published this statement. A day passed between it and the message sent to NIN, and no source explains what Jovanovic meant by a gradual return to politics or how it squares with his withdrawal.
What is still unknown?
None of the three sources says who would take over New DSS, whether the party has accepted the resignation, or which parties made up the “Authentic Right” list. Until those answers arrive, all that remains is what Jovanovic wrote to NIN: that he is withdrawing, that he has nothing new to say and that, by his own assessment, he has talked enough over all these years.
