Miroljub Labus
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Miroljub Labus (Serbian Cyrillic: Мирољуб Лабус) (born 28 February 1947) is a Serbian economist and politician, professor of Belgrade University.
He was the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, serving under Vojislav Koštunica, but resigned on May 3, 2006, after EU suspended enlargement talks with Serbia, over Ratko Mladić. He also resigned from the position of President of G17 Plus.
[edit] Early Life and Education
Labus was born in the town of Mala Krsna in Serbia. He studied law at the University of Belgrade, graduating in 1970. This was followed by two postgraduate qualifications in economics.
[edit] Career
He began his career as an academic and university professor. In 1983, he was served as a Fulbright Lecturer on the Participation and Self-Management Systems. He has also been a guest lecturer at Cornell University.
Labus was a Senior Adviser at the Federal Statistics Bureau in Belgrade between 1986 and 1994. Since 1993, he has been a researcher at Belgrade's Economics Institute. He edited the Federal Statistics Bureau's Economic Trend publication from 1990 to 1996, and the Belgrade Economics Institute's Economic Barometer from 1994 to 2000. Labus has also been involved with the National Bank of Yugoslavia and World Bank.
Labus began his political career when he was elected as a deputy to the federal parliament of what was then Yugoslavia in 1992. While in this role, he was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. In 1994, he was promoted to Vice-President of the Democratic Party, under Đinđić. He held the position until 1997.
In 1999, he became President of the Administrative Board of the G17 Plus movement. It was then a lobby group focused on encouraging economic reforms within Serbia. G17 Plus soon become a powerful lobby group, with significant public support. In 2000, he left the board of G17 Plus, taking up a position as Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and Minister for International Economic Relations, once again under former boss, Vojislav Koštunica, who at the time led the federal government, after the fall of Slobodan Milošević.
During the leadup to the fall 2002 elections in Serbia itself, it became apparent that then-Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić did not have the appeal to match Koštunica, who had switched from the federal parliament to the state parliament. Đinđić agreed to back Koštunica's former ally, Labus, as an alternative candidate. In the resulting election, Koštunica defeated Labus, but as the election did not gain the required 50% voter turnout, the result was declared void. As such, Labus continued on in his position for another year.
Labus continued working with G17 Plus, and in late 2002, he began the process of transforming the lobby group into a full-fledged centrist political party, becoming its President. After the elections of December 2003, Labus and his party formed a minority coalition with the Democratic Party of Serbia and several other minor parties, in order to keep ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nikolić out of power. As a result, he retained both his deputy prime ministership and his other ministries.
[edit] Books
- Fundamentals of Economics, (1995, 1997) (Original: Osnovi ekonomije)
- Fundamentals of Political Economy, (with D. Šoškić) (1992) (Original: Osnovi političke ekonomije)
- Contemporary Political Economy (1990) (Original: Savremena politička ekonomija)
- General Equilibrium of Economy, (with D. Vujović) (1990) (Original: Opšta privredna ravnoteža)
- Social or Collective Ownership Rights (1987) (Original: Društvena ili kolektivna vlasnička prava)
