Koštunica resigns as DSS party leader

I always had great respect for his principles, but over the last 6 years or so he just has not been able to connect with voters, and it is time for someone else to try.

noooooooooooOOOOOO! I love reading this guy's unintentional comedy in Vecernje Novosti every few days.

The best news is that the quisling LDP and Cedi Jovanovic got booted out of parliament! What a great day for democracy.

It really did not have to come to this for the DSS. Although I am not sure what he said that is so comedic to Danilo, I personally found Ceda Jovanovic a lot funnier than Kostunica. Thank God Ceda is gone now too. However the DSS has a decent support base for a party that is completely lifeless. This is because they promote an ideology of patriotism, not ultra nationalism (of course to Danilo, any party that doesn't believe in complete capitulation and the EU is a nationalist party). However over the past few years, the DSS have had no spark to their message. Kostunica is not going to come across as relevant to voters any more. He should have resigned and remained an honorary head of the DSS around the time the SNS was formed. If they replaced him at that time with a younger, more appealing politician, the DSS could have very likely had a large portion of today SNS voters.

Cedo out? I wonder if he'll pop up in a western sponsored 'think tank' or institution soon? They could probably get a good bargain on him too!

Good riddance..............

Serbia lost the most respectable and principled politician it has today. Clods like Danilo can say what they like, they will never accomplish in their lifetime what Koštunica has in 22 years.

I'm sad to see him go but, Popović will make a good successor. DSS is down for now but not out. Thank you, Koštunica for your service, you've earned a golden pension.

Decent support base?

Haven't you noticed that they won 4% in this election (probably most of the votes coming from Chicago). 7% last election and around 10 before that.

Where's this "decent support base" of which you speak?

It's interesting how all the Serb politicians are quiet when it comes to Crimea, starting with Kostunica. I don't hear any of them complaining that the Ukranian constitution was broken and that international principles and laws were broken. The silence is deafening. It just goes to show that it was never about principles for Serbia. Even Putin called you out and mentioned Kosova's independence as the legal basis, yet you stay quiet. No Vucic, no Dacic, no Tadic, no Jeremic, no Nikolic, no Irinej. None of them went on record in public to tell Putin that he is wrong. Sounds a lot like principles and constitutions are not what you are concerned at all. It has always been about having others submit to your power. As disciples of international law until two days ago, this is the only way to describe this silence.

He should have resigned 2 elections ago. Instead he waited until the party lost parliamentary representation and in return members opposed him publically, causing his resignation.

Its amazing that a man so unwilling to change anything, so wedded to the past managed to stay leader of a political party for so long. I think history will be kind to him for his 2000 role, but closer scrutiny will be less forgiving for many other positions he took - above all his tendency to offer no solutions to Serbia's problems and his ability to dither and be afraid to take the initiative.

Its rumoured that Aleks Popovic will take over, this guy is much more a fully paid up member of the human race and doesn't do that constant lemmon sucking face that Kostunica was famous for and is willing to undertake some reforms and policy changes.

Ceda has a dramatic arts degree, and no other education. He really has nothing to offer, except to be a mouthpiece. The trouble is he is a loose cannon and says really dumb things like the time he called Africans canibals. Something tells me that the Obama administration frowns on that sort of thing. He really isn't a good investment for the west because no one takes him seriously, except for a small group of ageing lost boys. Western interfence money is better spent on Tadic who stays on message and does as the west tells him.

Maybe Ceda can find work on Tv?

Danilo, you forget one thing about the DSS. They got those votes without a dollar from the west. You can't say that about the other parties.

Bganon

I want to point out a couple of things. According to polling I have seen Kostunica as an individual is liked and even trusted. He is not exciting though and does not motivate or excite voters. I agree a change is overdue, but the DSS brand is liked and trusted largely because of Kostunica (this is even despite the Bubalo scandal).

Finally Kostunica got 151,677 votes, only 52,239 less than Tadic's Coalition and only 64,246 less than the DS. He did it without a coalition partner, less media time, and without Washington's money.

I know he bores you and you have disliked him for years, but don't you agree that the DSS is better off than the others that did not pass the threshold?

Where's this "decent support base" of which you speak?
(Danilo, 19 March 2014 17:06)

4% is a lot for a party that doesn't seem to try to appeal to anybody. They don't change their leadership, they hardly campaign, don't buy a lot of commercial space, don't have outside international support and yet they consistently had 7-8% of the vote. This time, their inactivity got the best of them and they are out.

I say good that most of these parties are going by the wayside. I will accept Kostunica gone for Ceda because the fact is an entire generational transition must take place in Serbian politics for Serbia to ever modernize. Now, the SNS will lead the country and more years will be lost under their leadership. Granted, they will be a lot better than the die-hard Yellowist and Otporista's who had a stranglehold on Serbia for over 8 years. But still, even they attach Vuk Draskovic that pathetic dinosaur to their coalition which says the SNS isn't so modern as they portray themselves.

They will still do better than the people you have voted for over the past decade. But only because they really couldn't do any worse. So if the DSS truly focuses on revamping themselves, hire a foreign firm to help them with their image and message then they got a chance next time.

It would have been much more honest, should the US imposed quisling cult declare one party and one politic only (check with "Baroness" Ashton for further info)and call it CANVAS with it´s "dear leader" Srdja Popovic for dictator.

Serbia remains a NATO occupied country but i notice that the zombie murmuring sleep walking towards the western Titanic abyss, led by Soros & Co has become less deafening as of lately, given the US/Zionazi imperial defeat in Georgia, Syria and most notably, Ukraine and Mighty Vlads speech on the reunion with Crimea. There is no reason to keep walking that path anymore. Crimeans and Ukranians requested Russias help against the western imposed Nazi junta and got it, Serbs shold do the same. The Baroness and NATO can´t scare you anymore, go east!

While the DSS was in power... Kosovo was lost... Hello!!! And oh yeah, NIS was sold for a song (and some inflated dinars)...

(J, 19 March 2014 23:11)

Well do you expect Serbia's elected elite to say anything at all? They have no interest in taking stands on anything really so I don't see why you are surprised. However Putin did not use "Kosovo as a legal basis". He simply pointed out Western foreign policy apply overt double standards in the cases they consider to be "unique".

Yanukovych was a corrupt leader, but he was democratically elected. That's like Ted Cruz and the Tea Party forcefully removing Obama from the White House for signing an abortion or gay marriage legislation that they consider unacceptable. Meanwhile, the anti-democratic coup was orchestrated by political ideologies that are counter to Crimea's interests.

That's all Russia was saying. The standards apply differently, and every time the West has to say "this is nothing like Kosovo", it actually hits at the credibility of such a statement.

4% is a lot for a party that doesn't seem to try to appeal to anybody. They don't change their leadership, they hardly campaign, don't buy a lot of commercial space, don't have outside international support and yet they consistently had 7-8% of the vote. This time, their inactivity got the best of them and they are out
-----------------------

You're just making stuff up, Ari. DSS campaigns as much as any other party in Serbia.

Parties I vote for? Again, making stuff up. I'm not a Serbian citizen, as I've mentioned to you several times.

yes, I agree, good riddance to Kostunica bad rubbish. Under the pretense of legalism he has always been a far right ultra-nationalist. It is widely believed he helped to destroy "sensitive" files fr the milosevic regime, and of course worked hard to shelter as many war criminals as possible. scumbag...

of course no one mentioned here the political background of the djindjic assassination. serbia (esp the diaspora) goes brsain dead when it comes to anything they dont wish to deal with, such as serbian-led genocide, such as burning the bodies of their enemies (cililian, esp.ly women, children, babies,etc.) it is all just conveniently forgotten. kostunica led that craziness for way too many years, but now serbian elite just continue in the same vein, slightly more diplomatically.

and as for the kostunica constitution, it made putin's recent moves look honorable...

roberto frisco

"It's interesting how all the Serb politicians are quiet when it comes to Crimea, starting with Kostunica. I don't hear any of them complaining that the Ukranian constitution was broken and that international principles and laws were broken. The silence is deafening. "
(J, 19 March 2014 23:11)

Serbian politicians know well that their position would be weakened when they congratulate Putin, like some Serb posters here do. And, of course, they don't dare to criticize master Putin.
So, keeping the mouth shut is the only option that makes sense.

So, keeping the mouth shut is the only option that makes sense.
(Comm. Parrisson, 20 March 2014 10:12)

I get this, but since this silence seems to be more important than the principles and international law for the Serb politicians can we now drop the charade and call things for what they are? Principles and international low is not that important to Serbia. Ruling over others is of critical importance to Serbia. It is really that simple. Those who base their lives on a principle do not sacrifice or compromise on that principle. Those that see a principle as a tool for advancing a certain agenda then happily sacrifice principles, the tool, when it goes against their agenda. This silence is the scarification, the compromise of the principle, the tool. Putin for the Serb politicians is a more important tool than some principle. Putin can advance their agenda. The principle cannot if it goes agains Putin. Hence the Serb politicians have no principles that they are sticking to; but they do have an agenda. Now let's take it from here.

J,

Kostunica ran on a neutral platform, saying that Serbia should remain millitarily and politically Neutral- and you are mad that he isn't taking sides between Russia and the West? The silence is deafening! you crack me up with your cliches and Western style new found legalism.

Roberto, your positions are as bizarre as always.

You opine that Kostunica led genocide and now the Serbian political elite will continue to do so, but more diplomatically.

I cannot fathom how to respond to that, but I would ask you how does a country lead genocide "more diplomatically"?

You opine that the Serbian Constitution is worse than Putin's actions in the Ukraine.

I can't imagine how you defend the Ukraine's soverignty and territorial integrity while attacking Serbia's legal defense of its own soverignty and territorial integrity.

You are of the lowest variety of western interventionists who believe American exeptionalism is some right to dictate the affairs of other nations.

Why don't you keep your country and drones out of Yemen, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Gitmo, Pakistan and Afghanistan for long enough to lecture Putin on his interventionism?

I had forgotten how little he did to protect Serbs In Kosovo in 2004 especially. He was awful. Serbs were being attacked in an organized way and in 2004 he shut all borders with Kosovo and allowed no help while NATO watched the attacks. But now with Serbia so stridently pro Kosovo independence and him having an anti Brussels platform it makes sense that his party died.

noooooooooooOOOOOO! I love reading this guy's unintentional comedy in Vecernje Novosti every few days.

Good riddance..............

Decent support base?

Haven't you noticed that they won 4% in this election (probably most of the votes coming from Chicago). 7% last election and around 10 before that.

Where's this "decent support base" of which you speak?

The best news is that the quisling LDP and Cedi Jovanovic got booted out of parliament! What a great day for democracy.

Serbia lost the most respectable and principled politician it has today. Clods like Danilo can say what they like, they will never accomplish in their lifetime what Koštunica has in 22 years.

I'm sad to see him go but, Popović will make a good successor. DSS is down for now but not out. Thank you, Koštunica for your service, you've earned a golden pension.

Cedo out? I wonder if he'll pop up in a western sponsored 'think tank' or institution soon? They could probably get a good bargain on him too!

Where's this "decent support base" of which you speak?
(Danilo, 19 March 2014 17:06)

4% is a lot for a party that doesn't seem to try to appeal to anybody. They don't change their leadership, they hardly campaign, don't buy a lot of commercial space, don't have outside international support and yet they consistently had 7-8% of the vote. This time, their inactivity got the best of them and they are out.

I say good that most of these parties are going by the wayside. I will accept Kostunica gone for Ceda because the fact is an entire generational transition must take place in Serbian politics for Serbia to ever modernize. Now, the SNS will lead the country and more years will be lost under their leadership. Granted, they will be a lot better than the die-hard Yellowist and Otporista's who had a stranglehold on Serbia for over 8 years. But still, even they attach Vuk Draskovic that pathetic dinosaur to their coalition which says the SNS isn't so modern as they portray themselves.

They will still do better than the people you have voted for over the past decade. But only because they really couldn't do any worse. So if the DSS truly focuses on revamping themselves, hire a foreign firm to help them with their image and message then they got a chance next time.

It really did not have to come to this for the DSS. Although I am not sure what he said that is so comedic to Danilo, I personally found Ceda Jovanovic a lot funnier than Kostunica. Thank God Ceda is gone now too. However the DSS has a decent support base for a party that is completely lifeless. This is because they promote an ideology of patriotism, not ultra nationalism (of course to Danilo, any party that doesn't believe in complete capitulation and the EU is a nationalist party). However over the past few years, the DSS have had no spark to their message. Kostunica is not going to come across as relevant to voters any more. He should have resigned and remained an honorary head of the DSS around the time the SNS was formed. If they replaced him at that time with a younger, more appealing politician, the DSS could have very likely had a large portion of today SNS voters.

He should have resigned 2 elections ago. Instead he waited until the party lost parliamentary representation and in return members opposed him publically, causing his resignation.

Its amazing that a man so unwilling to change anything, so wedded to the past managed to stay leader of a political party for so long. I think history will be kind to him for his 2000 role, but closer scrutiny will be less forgiving for many other positions he took - above all his tendency to offer no solutions to Serbia's problems and his ability to dither and be afraid to take the initiative.

Its rumoured that Aleks Popovic will take over, this guy is much more a fully paid up member of the human race and doesn't do that constant lemmon sucking face that Kostunica was famous for and is willing to undertake some reforms and policy changes.

Danilo, you forget one thing about the DSS. They got those votes without a dollar from the west. You can't say that about the other parties.

It's interesting how all the Serb politicians are quiet when it comes to Crimea, starting with Kostunica. I don't hear any of them complaining that the Ukranian constitution was broken and that international principles and laws were broken. The silence is deafening. It just goes to show that it was never about principles for Serbia. Even Putin called you out and mentioned Kosova's independence as the legal basis, yet you stay quiet. No Vucic, no Dacic, no Tadic, no Jeremic, no Nikolic, no Irinej. None of them went on record in public to tell Putin that he is wrong. Sounds a lot like principles and constitutions are not what you are concerned at all. It has always been about having others submit to your power. As disciples of international law until two days ago, this is the only way to describe this silence.

Ceda has a dramatic arts degree, and no other education. He really has nothing to offer, except to be a mouthpiece. The trouble is he is a loose cannon and says really dumb things like the time he called Africans canibals. Something tells me that the Obama administration frowns on that sort of thing. He really isn't a good investment for the west because no one takes him seriously, except for a small group of ageing lost boys. Western interfence money is better spent on Tadic who stays on message and does as the west tells him.

Maybe Ceda can find work on Tv?

While the DSS was in power... Kosovo was lost... Hello!!! And oh yeah, NIS was sold for a song (and some inflated dinars)...

It would have been much more honest, should the US imposed quisling cult declare one party and one politic only (check with "Baroness" Ashton for further info)and call it CANVAS with it´s "dear leader" Srdja Popovic for dictator.

Serbia remains a NATO occupied country but i notice that the zombie murmuring sleep walking towards the western Titanic abyss, led by Soros & Co has become less deafening as of lately, given the US/Zionazi imperial defeat in Georgia, Syria and most notably, Ukraine and Mighty Vlads speech on the reunion with Crimea. There is no reason to keep walking that path anymore. Crimeans and Ukranians requested Russias help against the western imposed Nazi junta and got it, Serbs shold do the same. The Baroness and NATO can´t scare you anymore, go east!

I had forgotten how little he did to protect Serbs In Kosovo in 2004 especially. He was awful. Serbs were being attacked in an organized way and in 2004 he shut all borders with Kosovo and allowed no help while NATO watched the attacks. But now with Serbia so stridently pro Kosovo independence and him having an anti Brussels platform it makes sense that his party died.

I always had great respect for his principles, but over the last 6 years or so he just has not been able to connect with voters, and it is time for someone else to try.

Bganon

I want to point out a couple of things. According to polling I have seen Kostunica as an individual is liked and even trusted. He is not exciting though and does not motivate or excite voters. I agree a change is overdue, but the DSS brand is liked and trusted largely because of Kostunica (this is even despite the Bubalo scandal).

Finally Kostunica got 151,677 votes, only 52,239 less than Tadic's Coalition and only 64,246 less than the DS. He did it without a coalition partner, less media time, and without Washington's money.

I know he bores you and you have disliked him for years, but don't you agree that the DSS is better off than the others that did not pass the threshold?

"It's interesting how all the Serb politicians are quiet when it comes to Crimea, starting with Kostunica. I don't hear any of them complaining that the Ukranian constitution was broken and that international principles and laws were broken. The silence is deafening. "
(J, 19 March 2014 23:11)

Serbian politicians know well that their position would be weakened when they congratulate Putin, like some Serb posters here do. And, of course, they don't dare to criticize master Putin.
So, keeping the mouth shut is the only option that makes sense.

Roberto, your positions are as bizarre as always.

You opine that Kostunica led genocide and now the Serbian political elite will continue to do so, but more diplomatically.

I cannot fathom how to respond to that, but I would ask you how does a country lead genocide "more diplomatically"?

You opine that the Serbian Constitution is worse than Putin's actions in the Ukraine.

I can't imagine how you defend the Ukraine's soverignty and territorial integrity while attacking Serbia's legal defense of its own soverignty and territorial integrity.

You are of the lowest variety of western interventionists who believe American exeptionalism is some right to dictate the affairs of other nations.

Why don't you keep your country and drones out of Yemen, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Gitmo, Pakistan and Afghanistan for long enough to lecture Putin on his interventionism?

(J, 19 March 2014 23:11)

Well do you expect Serbia's elected elite to say anything at all? They have no interest in taking stands on anything really so I don't see why you are surprised. However Putin did not use "Kosovo as a legal basis". He simply pointed out Western foreign policy apply overt double standards in the cases they consider to be "unique".

Yanukovych was a corrupt leader, but he was democratically elected. That's like Ted Cruz and the Tea Party forcefully removing Obama from the White House for signing an abortion or gay marriage legislation that they consider unacceptable. Meanwhile, the anti-democratic coup was orchestrated by political ideologies that are counter to Crimea's interests.

That's all Russia was saying. The standards apply differently, and every time the West has to say "this is nothing like Kosovo", it actually hits at the credibility of such a statement.

yes, I agree, good riddance to Kostunica bad rubbish. Under the pretense of legalism he has always been a far right ultra-nationalist. It is widely believed he helped to destroy "sensitive" files fr the milosevic regime, and of course worked hard to shelter as many war criminals as possible. scumbag...

of course no one mentioned here the political background of the djindjic assassination. serbia (esp the diaspora) goes brsain dead when it comes to anything they dont wish to deal with, such as serbian-led genocide, such as burning the bodies of their enemies (cililian, esp.ly women, children, babies,etc.) it is all just conveniently forgotten. kostunica led that craziness for way too many years, but now serbian elite just continue in the same vein, slightly more diplomatically.

and as for the kostunica constitution, it made putin's recent moves look honorable...

roberto frisco

So, keeping the mouth shut is the only option that makes sense.
(Comm. Parrisson, 20 March 2014 10:12)

I get this, but since this silence seems to be more important than the principles and international law for the Serb politicians can we now drop the charade and call things for what they are? Principles and international low is not that important to Serbia. Ruling over others is of critical importance to Serbia. It is really that simple. Those who base their lives on a principle do not sacrifice or compromise on that principle. Those that see a principle as a tool for advancing a certain agenda then happily sacrifice principles, the tool, when it goes against their agenda. This silence is the scarification, the compromise of the principle, the tool. Putin for the Serb politicians is a more important tool than some principle. Putin can advance their agenda. The principle cannot if it goes agains Putin. Hence the Serb politicians have no principles that they are sticking to; but they do have an agenda. Now let's take it from here.

4% is a lot for a party that doesn't seem to try to appeal to anybody. They don't change their leadership, they hardly campaign, don't buy a lot of commercial space, don't have outside international support and yet they consistently had 7-8% of the vote. This time, their inactivity got the best of them and they are out
-----------------------

You're just making stuff up, Ari. DSS campaigns as much as any other party in Serbia.

Parties I vote for? Again, making stuff up. I'm not a Serbian citizen, as I've mentioned to you several times.

J,

Kostunica ran on a neutral platform, saying that Serbia should remain millitarily and politically Neutral- and you are mad that he isn't taking sides between Russia and the West? The silence is deafening! you crack me up with your cliches and Western style new found legalism.