Čedomir Jovanović

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Čedomir Jovanović

Čedomir "Čeda" Jovanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Чедомир Чеда Јовановић) listen (help·info) (born April 13, 1971 in Belgrade) is a Serbian politician, president of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Adored and fiercely defended by his supporters, he is also much maligned and frequently blasted by his opponents. The Serbian political scene, having witnessed its share of mavericks and renegades, has rarely produced a figure with the ability to polarize public opinion to such an extent.

In November 2005, Jovanovic announced the formation of a new party, the Liberal Democrats, which immediately registered 3.4 percent in the polls—before any campaign. According to the latest polls, 5.8 percent of voters are supporting Jovanovic’s LDP (Faktor Plus Agency).

Popular among young people, the telegenic 35-year-old has an almost fanatically devoted band of followers. A substantial part of that attraction is the fact that, almost alone among Serbian politicians, Jovanovic has little patience for the bloody mythologies of the country's past. Instead, he looks to the future—and speaks of unpleasant realities as he sees them (NEWSWEEK, DEC 2005).

Born into a middle-class family (his father Jovica was an architect and economist; his mother Milena was also an economist) young Čedomir grew up in New Belgrade. He completed Ivan Gundulić Primary School with average grades. He then started attending the 9th Belgrade Gymnasium but quickly transferred to the 3rd Economics High School, from which he eventually graduated. Next came studies at the University of Belgrade's College of Economics, but he quit after only a week of classes. Jovanović then started attending Belgrade's University Arts dramaturgy program, from which he graduated in 1998 at the age of 27. He never worked in his chosen profession, writing only a couple of plays that were never staged or published. During his student days he also worked as a journalist.

1 Early years in politics
2 Years in power 2000-2003
- 2.1 DOS parliamentary caucus chief
- 2.2 Deputy Prime Minister
3 In opposition
- 3.1 Leaving DS
- 3.2 Founding LDP
4 Personal
5 External links

[edit] Early years in politics

Jovanović got involved in politics as a leader of student protests in Belgrade during the winter of 1996/97. His charisma, ambition, high energy and appealing looks clearly made him stand out among the masses. He soon took the reins of the entire street revolt and became one of its most recognizable protagonists. Female protesters could be seen sporting badges proclaiming 'Marry me, Čedo!'. This newfound popularity did not go unnoticed by Milošević's police either, as he was arrested, questioned and roughed up several times.

Throughout the 3-month demonstration he also grew close to Zoran Đinđić and the Democratic Party (DS). He eventually joined the party in 1998, and quickly rose up the ranks to become its vice-president in 2001.

[edit] Years in power 2000-2003

[edit] DOS parliamentary caucus chief

He was elected to the Serbian Parliament in the December 2000 elections, on the list of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), and also held the post of DOS' parliamentary caucus leader until 2003. At only 29, he was the youngest person ever in Serbian politics to hold such a position.

He led an extremely eventful life during this period for a mere parliamentary chief. On March 31, 2001, after a masked government unit stormed the fortified Villa Mir attempting to arrest its resident Slobodan Milošević, Jovanović was at the scene, negotiating with the former Yugoslav president and urging him to surrender. He was reportedly shot at from a pistol by Milošević's daughter Marija.

Other more colourful episodes around the same time included Jovanović's jeep vehicle being blown up with an explosive device and his impulsive order to have a pedestrian walkway painted across Belgrade's Kralja Milana thoroughfare in front of the parliamentary building because he found it inconvenient to walk an extra 50 meters to the nearest traffic light when needing to cross the street. The crosswalk became known derisively as "Čeda's zebra".

Information would later come out about his other, more clandestine activities during this time.

[edit] Deputy Prime Minister

In March 2003, following the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, Jovanović advanced to the position of Deputy Prime Minister in the government of new PM Zoran Živković.It has been alleged that during his mandate as Member of Parliament, in addition to his regular duties Jovanović assumed the role of Prime Minister Đinđić's government liaison, dealing with and meeting individuals connected to Serbian organized crime circles.

When the press caught wind of this, it created a storm of controversy by raising many questions about Jovanovic's role in Government's dealing with mafia. Political opponents directly accused him of criminal involvement and of providing favours for shady individuals such as Dušan Spasojević (late leader of the Zemun mafia clan) and Milorad Ulemek (now accused of the assassination of Zoran Đinđić). Strong campaign against Jovanovic included even rumors according to that he is using drugs. There were no forbbiden weapons and no fer-play rulles in the campaign against young ambitious politician.

After continuous pressure from the media, Jovanović admitted to some meetings, but denied any wrongdoing, claiming that these contacts were made on behalf of the government in order to curb mafia activities and to secure political stability from people active during Milošević's era. During one of his speeches he stated, "my hands are dirty because I was cleaning up Serbia."

Thanks to strong campaign against him, the electorate did not exactly see it that way and Jovanović's popularity dropped drastically as a result of this episode.

Realizing this, the Democratic Party brass marginalized his role within its ranks before the parliamentary elections in December 2003 by not even entering his name on the party's electoral ballot. He did not complain, at least not publicly, opting to instead focus on the coming party congress in February 2004 which was to determine its new post-Đinđić leadership. Jovanović was hoping to get a seat on the main board but did not receive enough delegate support.

[edit] In opposition

Dissatisfied with the party's new direction under the leadership of Boris Tadić, Jovanović criticized him publicly, most notably for his policy of political cohabitation with Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica's government. Being a fierce Koštunica opponent, Jovanović felt that the Democratic Party should actively seek ways to bring down his government, especially when Boris Tadić was elected President of the Republic in June 2004. A couple of months after Tadić's inauguration, Jovanović wrote his party colleague an open public letter[1] on a per tu basis criticizing his political choices. Tadić never even acknowledged the letter publicly until he was directly asked about it on Utisak nedelje, a political TV talk-show. He then admitted that he had not really bothered to read it and added: "When someone writes a letter, supposedly to me, by first making sure it gets published in the papers, then that's really not a letter but a political bid".[2]

[edit] Leaving DS

After his criticism was mostly ignored by other party colleagues as well, Jovanović's next move was to form the "Liberal Democratic faction" within DS - knowingly breaching its statute in the process. The act was obviously not welcomed by the leadership and after tolerating him for a few months, DS finally expelled him on December 3, 2004.

In the following period Jovanović's political activity became distinctly more direct (some would say extreme). He gave bombastic interviews and in his strongly worded press releases he frequently went after PM Koštunica's government officials, Koštunica himself, and the Serbian security apparatus. Another one of his favourite targets is the Serbian Orthodox Church, which Jovanović considers dishonest, backward and dogmatic. In July 2005, Čedomir Jovanović published a book, Moj sukob sa prošlošću (My Confrontation with the Past). In this period he also came out in favour of Kosovo's independence, making him among only a few Serbian politicians of note to do so.

[edit] Founding LDP

Finally, on November 5, 2005, Jovanović and his supporters founded the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to much fanfare, and Jovanović was elected as its first president at the age of 34.

Soon after, in December, he was a subject of a lengthy, very affirmative piece penned by Zoran Ćirjaković in the influential American weekly magazine Newsweek [3] which, among other things, Jovanović used to further reiterate his stance on Kosovo and to declare his opinion that Bosnian Serb ties with Belgrade should effectively be severed.