Vice president for a year and a half already Socialist Party of Serbia Branko Ružić acts as a kind of internal party dissident. He criticizes President Aleksandar Vučić, respects the student protests, asks that the SPS not be a "replica" of the progressives...
A recent episode in Knić, where a couple of local socialists refused to cooperate with SNS, she revealed that Ružić he also has some kind of support in the party. "Factions," some would say, or "currents."
This is all before the elections, which are judged to be decisive, while polls predict that an independent SPS could exceed the three percent threshold and, perhaps, be the tip of the scales.
According to the New Serbian Political Thought survey published by "Vreme", the independent SPS can reach 4,9 percent. According to Crta, the party is at 3,8 percent.
Now the president of the Executive Board of the Main Board of the SPS, Vladan Zagrađanin, also spoke, who on the one hand reiterated his support for the leader of the Socialists, Ivica Dacic, but also reminded that Dacic himself advocated independent participation in the elections.
"No factions"
The resident of Zagradan told the newspaper Nova that there were five hundred people at the session of the Main Board in July, who unanimously supported Dacic's statement: "We are going to the elections independently."
That is, in a small standard coalition with United Serbia and the Greens of Serbia.
The first operative of the party also says that local committees should submit lists of candidates for MPs, as well as proposals for candidates for the president of Serbia, by August 25.
"We haven't talked to SNS. I really don't know if we will," added Zagrađanin.
Speaking about the statements of his party colleague Ružić, who called on the socialists to draw "clear red lines" towards the SNS, Zagrađanin said that Ružić has the right to an opinion, but that decisions are made exclusively by party bodies.
"There are no factions here, there is nothing like that," said Zagrađanin. "So, every decision was made absolutely unanimously, without a single reservation, not even a reservation."
Dacic for the continuation of the coalition with the SNS
Although experts believe that in the end President Aleksandar Vucic will decide whether the SPS will go independent or not, his coalition partner Ivica Dacic said at the end of July that the SPS is already preparing for the elections, suggesting that it will go independent.
But also that "it is in the best interest of Serbia" that cooperation with SNS be continued after the elections. "But that will again depend on the people. There is no coalition and cooperation if you don't get the support of the citizens first," emphasized Dacic.
Commenting on the situation in Knić for Vreme, Ružić reiterated the position that it is difficult to talk about a "coalition" at all, but rather about subjugation.
"I can only evaluate the current processes in Knić through the prism of a general lack of self-respect, renunciation of original principles and masochism that are present in not a small number of local self-governments, but it is even more alarming that such tendencies exist at the very top of the SPS," he said.
Good and bad cop?
When the line is drawn, the leading socialists seem to be in line for an independent election, but they differ greatly in their attitude towards the SNS.
To some, Ružić's statements still look like a play in which he and Dacić participate with the aim of the party of "eternal power" remaining so. Ružić denied this in an interview for "Vreme" in April last year:
"I would like to dispel that urban legend, because many people think that we have a secret agreement, so we act strategically. It is also difficult to convince our coalition partner that such a thing does not exist, but I responsibly claim that there is no agreement, nor would I make such deals because it would be dishonest. I say everything I say because I need to make it public."
As Slobodan Georgiev analyzed for "Vreme", socialists have a unique experience of marriage with two Serbias - the democratic one until 2012, and the authoritarian one after this year. "It gives them the ability to see where they have a better chance of survival."
Although they were an inseparable part of the government, they paradoxically became more receptive, wrote Georgiev: "Coexistence with the progressives made them beautiful, as strange as it sounds, because it is almost impossible to compete with the loyalists in inaction and indecency."
It remains to be seen whether and how it will be cashed in at the new elections. According to Ružić's calculation, up to seven percent of the votes can be obtained - if red lines are drawn towards the progressives.
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