Dragan Jovanović (politician)

Dragan Jovanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Јовановић; born 5 March 1972) is a politician in Serbia. He was the mayor of Topola from 2004 to 2014 and served in the National Assembly of Serbia from 2014 to 2020. Formerly a member of New Serbia, he is now the leader of Better Serbia.

Dragan Jovanović
Драган Јовановић
Personal details
Born (1976-03-05) 5 March 1976
Aranđelovac, SFR Yugoslavia
(now Serbia)
NationalitySerbian
Political partyNew Serbia (−2017)
Better Serbia (2017–present)
Alma materUniversity of Belgrade
OccupationPolitician

Early life and career

Jovanović was born in Aranđelovac, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He is a graduate of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering's department of industrial management.[1]

Politician

Jovanović was New Serbia's secretary-general from 2003 until 2005, when he was elected to the first of two terms as a party vice-president.

Mayor of Topola

Jovanović became mayor of Topola via a direct election in the 2004 Serbian local elections. Direct mayoral elections were subsequently abolished, Jovanović was returned to the mayor's office with the support of the municipal assembly following the local elections of 2008 and 2012.

In December 2007, Jovanović joined with other members of New Serbia and members of the Serbian Radical Party to prevent the B92 program Peščanik from recording an episode at Aranđelovac's House of Culture; Jovanović and the others took control of the microphones and prevented the recording from taking place.[2] This received international attention, including a reference in the United States Department of State's Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2007, which also stated that Jovanović made threats against B92 in a subsequent interview.[3] In the aftermath of this controversy, New Serbia members accused B92 of pursuing an "anti-Serb and anti-Constitutional campaign." B92 responded that New Serbia's criticism was actually motivated by its own frequent criticisms of their party leader Velimir Ilić.[4]

In 2009, Jovanović joined other Serbian politicians from across the political spectrum in accusing Croatian authorities of preventing Serbs from returning to the country and participating in local elections.[5]

Jovanović stood down as mayor in 2014, as he could not remain in this role and hold a dual mandate as a parliamentarian. He was instead chosen as president (i.e., speaker) of the municipal assembly.[6]

New Serbia

From 2000 to 2011, Serbian parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order.[7] Jovanović was included in New Serbia's electoral lists in the 2003 and 2007 parliamentary elections, although he was not included as part of its parliamentary delegation on either occasion.[8] He briefly received a mandate following the 2008 election, in which New Serbia ran on a combined list with the Democratic Party of Serbia,[9] but he resigned after only a month to permit party leader Velimir Ilić to enter the assembly as a replacement.[10]

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that parliamentary mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful lists. New Serbia joined the Serbian Progressive Party's coalition list for the 2012 parliamentary election and maintained its alliance with the Progressives for the 2014 and 2016 campaigns. Jovanović was not a candidate in 2012 but received the ninety-eighth position on the Progressive list in 2014 and was elected when it won a majority victory with 158 out of 250 mandates.[11] He received the 107th position in the 2016 and was returned for another term when the list won 131 mandates.[12]

During the 2016–20 parliament, Jovanović was a member of the parliamentary committee on spatial planning, transport, infrastructure, and telecommunications; a deputy member of the environmental protection committee and the agriculture, forestry, and water management committee; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.[13]

Independent member

Velimir Ilić expelled Jovanović from New Serbia in January 2017. This occurred after Ilić withdrew his support from the administration of Progressive Party leader Aleksandar Vučić; Jovanović, as a party vice-president, stated that Ilić was entitled to his personal opinions but that the party as a whole would continue to support the administration.[14] Ilić justified his decision to expel Jovanović on the grounds that the latter had disobeyed the decisions of the party leadership, had made false claims about a diploma, and was compromised because of his involvement in a 2012 car accident. Jovanović rejected these claims and said that Ilić was really concerned about a possible leadership challenge.[15][16][17]

At around the same time that Jovanović was expelled from New Serbia, deputies Dubravka Filipovski and Mladen Grujić voluntarily left the party in opposition to Ilić's leadership and his decision to withdraw New Serbia's support from Vučić's administration. Initially, all three continued to support the Progressive-led administration.[18]

Better Serbia

In June 2017, Jovanović joined with Miroslav Parović and Vladan Glišić to present a manifesto for a new right-wing political party. Jovanović said that the group would offer conservative Serb voters a third choice, distinct from the country's existing government and opposition blocs.[19] Shortly after this meeting, he launched a new political party called Better Serbia with himself as the leader.[20]

Better Serbia and Healthy Serbia ran on a joint list in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election, and Jovanović received third position on the list.[21] By this time, Jovanović had reversed his previous support of the Progressive administration, saying that it had turned out to be worse than the Democratic Party-led administration that preceded it.[22] The list did not cross the electoral threshold to win representation in the assembly.

Municipal politics since 2016

Jovanović appeared in the lead position on the coalition list centred around the Progressive Party in Topola for the 2016 Serbian local elections.[23] The list won a majority victory with twenty-nine out of forty-one seats, and he was selected for another term as president of the municipal assembly.[24][25]

For the 2020 local elections, Better Serbia fielded its own list in Topola with Jovanović in the lead position.[26] The list won a narrow victory over the Progressive Party's coalition list, sixteen seats to fifteen.[27] The Progressives subsequently formed a new coalition government with smaller parties, however, and Better Serbia served in opposition.[28]

In November 2020, Jovanović was expelled from the municipal assembly on the grounds that he had changed his residence from Topola to Belgrade and was no longer on the local voters list. Jovanović responded that this decision was based on falsified information and that he had actually been expelled for being a "thorn in the side" of the local authorities.[29]

References
  1. DRAGAN JOVANOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 11 August 2017.
  2. "Serbia: Protestors disrupt Belgrade-based B92 radio program presentation," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 5 December 2007 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 0903 gmt 4 Dec 07).
  3. Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2007, United States Department of State, p. 1607.
  4. "Serbia: Radio B92 accuses minister's party of launching campaign against it," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Media, 14 December 1997 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 1746 gmt 11 Dec 07).
  5. "Croatia attempting to prevent Serbs from voting – Serbian politicians," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 14 May 2009 (Source: Glas javnosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 9 May 9, p3).
  6. DRAGAN JOVANOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 11 August 2017; "Serbian minister re-elected party chairman," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 26 November 2005 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1339 gmt 26 Nov 05).
  7. Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 28 February 2017.
  8. Jovanović was awarded the 201st position on a combined list of New Serbia and the Serbian Renewal Movement in 2003 and the twenty-seventh position on a combined list of New Serbia and the Democratic Party of Serbia in 2007. See Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (СРПСКИ ПОКРЕТ ОБНОВЕ – НОВА СРБИЈА – ВУК ДРАШКОВИЋ – ВЕЛИМИР ИЛИЋ) Archived 26 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 7 April 2017; Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска странка Србије – Нова Србија – др Војислав Коштуница) Archived 30 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 26 April 2017.
  9. Jovanović received the eleventh position on the combined list. See Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (Демократска Странка Србије – Нова Србија – Војислав Коштуница) Archived 30 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 26 April 2017.
  10. DRAGAN JOVANOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 11 August 2017. Jovanović served from 11 June to 8 July 2008. See 11 June 2008 legislature, National Assembly of Serbia, accessed 11 August 2017. This source erroneously lists Jovanović as a member of the Democratic Party of Serbia.
  11. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 16. и 23. марта 2014. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (ALEKSANDAR VUČIĆ – BUDUĆNOST U KOJU VERUJEMO) Archived 6 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 26 January 2017.
  12. Избори за народне посланике 2016. године » Изборне листе (АЛЕКСАНДАР ВУЧИЋ – СРБИЈА ПОБЕЂУЈЕ) Archived 27 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 February 2017.
  13. DRAGAN JOVANOVIC, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 26 June 2020.
  14. KULMINIRALE TENZIJE U NS Potpredsednik Nove Srbije se ograđuje od Ilićevih izjava, Blic (source: Tanjug), 20 January 2017, accessed 11 August 2017.
  15. Mirjana R. Milenković, "Dragan Jovanović isključen iz Nove Srbije", Danas, 26 January 2017, accessed 11 August 2017.
  16. M. R. Milenković, "Moguć novi Pokret Nova Srbija", Danas, 27 January 2017, accessed 11 August 2017.
  17. Mirjana Čekerevac, "Velja rastura stranku zbog lične sujete", Politika, 28 January 2017, accessed 11 August 2017.
  18. Usvojene izmene zakona, Vlada dobija još dva ministarstv, Radio Television of Serbia, 26 June 2017, accessed 11 August 2017. See also DEVETA POSEBNA SEDNICA , 29.06.2017, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 11 August 2017, which indicates that all three former New Serbia members voted to confirm Vučić's selection of Ana Brnabić as prime minister.
  19. Filip Rudic, "Serbian Right-Wingers Unveil Populist Platform", Balkan Insight, 15 June 2017, accessed 27 September 2017.
  20. "Bolja Srbija – nova stranka, predsednik Dragan Jovanović", Tanjug, 24 July 2017, accessed 27 September 2017.
  21. Online, Piše: Danas (22 May 2020). "Ko je sve na listi Milana Stamatovića i Dragana Jovanovića za poslanike?". Dnevni list Danas (in Serbian). Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  22. Mirjana R. Milenković, "Jovanović: Mislio sam da su žuti najgori, ali naprednjaci su gori", Danas, 6 March 2020, accessed 4 February 2021.
  23. Službeni glasnik SO Topola, Volume 20 Number 7 (13 April 2016), p. 1.
  24. Službeni glasnik SO Topola, Volume 20 Number 10 (25 April 2016), p. 1.
  25. DRAGAN JOVANOVIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 4 February 2021.
  26. Službeni glasnik SO Topola, Volume 24 Number 6 (8 June 2020), p. 1.
  27. Službeni glasnik SO Topola, Volume 24 Number 7 (29 June 2020), p. 2.
  28. "SNS na čelu vlasti u Topoli, Dragan Jovanović posle 16 godina ide u opoziciju", Danas, 19 August 2020, accessed 4 February 2021.
  29. "Dugogodišnjem predsedniku opštine Topola oduzet odbornički mandat", N1, 30 November 2020, accessed 4 February 2021.
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