President of Serbia

Boris Tadic, President of Serbia (Resigned on Apr 5, 2012. The parliament speaker, Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, became Acting President)

Boris Tadic, President of Serbia

Boris Tadic was elected president of Serbia on June 27, 2004. A reformist politician from the Democratic party, Tadic defeated Tomislav Nikolic, a nationalist ally of Slobodan Milosevic, in a presidential run-off that was held after Nikolic fell short of a clear victory in the first round of voting.

A professor of psychology, Tadic entered politics in 1990, when he joined Democratic party. Tadic served as Yugoslavia’s minister of communications and as the defense minister of the union of Serbia and Montenegro. He became the leader of the Democratic party after the assassination of President Zoran Djindjic, the first non-communist prime minister of Serbia since World War II.

Tadic’s pro-Western Democrats led the uprising against Milosevic in 2000, but difficult economic reforms led to a resurgence of nationalism in the years since, and in December of 2003, the Democrats lost their control of parliament and control of the government was handed over to moderate nationalists and conservatives.

Tadic has pledged to revive Serbia’s economy, to move Serbia closer to the European Union and NATO, and to help find a peaceful solution for Kosovo. In his victory speech, he also vowed to ensure that Serbia would “meet its international obligations”, which was understood as a reference to cooperation with the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague which is investigating the Balkan wars of the 1990s and is trying Milosevic for crimes that were allegedly committed during his rule. This cooperation is seen as crucial to ensure Western financial support of Serbia.