In January 2014, when he resigned as Minister of Economy in the government of Ivica Dačić and founded the Movement "Enough is Enough", Saša Radulović and the DJB did not have much: the money needed for the political life of a movement that wants to become a party, the presence and visibility in the media, membership, network of local committees - everything without which one cannot even imagine the functioning of a political entity.
It was completely unnecessary to expect any success of DJB - in the elections that were held less than two months later (republican and city), in March 2014, and in the years that followed. Apart from the flow of money from the budget received by the parliamentary parties, without sponsors, it was not expected that the DJB would be anything but a transient, "stick in the water" movement, such as is born before every election and dies before the next one.
On the other hand, the position that Saša Radulović and DJB were in was simply ideal. After spending a few months in the Ministry of Economy, he and his team of associates could see in detail what kind of corruption Vučić and the SNS are wallowing in, and with what ferocity the then Deputy Prime Minister, today's President of Serbia and his SNS - like an elemental disaster - are destroying and they are destroying every institution of this country.
EASY START IN A FREE NICHE: As an insider who did not want to participate in it, and could have stayed and been one of the many ficuses who paraded through the government, Radulović and his team, which later became DJB, had all the moral credibility, which is for the political scene of Serbia an extremely rare resource. Also, Radulović and DJB gave a precise diagnosis of the problems facing Serbia and, in simple language and (countless times repeated) messages, offered their program to solve those problems. In an interview with "Vremen" in February 2014, Ovako Radulović explains: "We have entered the hornet's nest of party interests, interest groups that live as parasites on the back of the system. And precisely because of the existence of such a parasitic system, all citizens live so poorly. There is a direct connection between those two things. Political parties have perfected the system in which party cadres are employed through the institutions of the system in public companies and state institutions. Entire coalition agreements are drawn up so that personnel can be accommodated. We have a constant increase in the number of employees, a large number of people in the public sector do not do their jobs, but are appointed there politically. And then, the other part of that whole system is the privileged part of the private sector that relies on the party economy, that gets contracts in public enterprises and is favored in public procurement. In such a parasitic system, when a crisis occurred and some sources of income that we had in the past dried up, the whole society began to collapse and shrink. So, healthy tissue dies so that the parasite can survive."
DJB and Radulović insisted on these few phrases - dismantling the party-parasitic system, Burazera economy, partocracy, party employment - all these years and, in the marketing vocabulary, found a free "niche" on the political scene. Deprived of media presence, all communication with potential voters went through the Internet and social networks.
In those first March parliamentary elections, the DJB took a little over two percent, and looking at the results of the parliamentary elections at the level of Belgrade, that result was almost twice as good: a little over 31 votes, or 3,84 percent.
The organization expands, local committees are opened, messages about the dismantling of the parasitic system are constantly preached through social networks, and in the extraordinary parliamentary elections in April 2016, what seemed impossible two years earlier happened: DJB not only entered the parliament, but won the most of all opposition parties (not counting the Serbian Radical Party) with more than 227 thousand votes (6,02 percent - 15 deputies in the Assembly). At the level of Belgrade, the result is even more impressive: DJB wins 11,15 percent, that is, almost 94 thousand votes - more than the radicals, SPS, and DS; more than everyone except Vučić and SNS.
Two years later, fewer MPs remained in the DJB parliamentary group in the Serbian Parliament (7) than left/expelled from that parliamentary group (8), the movement is deeply divided into those loyal to Saša Radulović and those who call him authoritarian, compared to Vučić and reject any thought of remaining in the DJB, if the current "set" or its people remain at the head of the movement. (And still a movement, since the process of creating the "Enough is Enough" party failed ingloriously.)
THE BEGINNING OF THE DECLINE: What led to such a sudden return of DJB in just two years? In short, successive disastrous political decisions in the 2017 and 2018 elections, ideological and value wandering and finally ending up in a dead end coalition with Dveri, the absence of any sense of cooperation with the media and understanding of what the media are, as well as the stubborn insistence that reality submit to the plans, wishes and intentions of the DJB, instead of the other way around (the latter could also be called an insult to common sense with various, to put it mildly, unrealistic forecasts and self-confident predictions about the results of the elections after 2016, about the certainty of the collapse of the SNS, which is about to happen, and the like).
A lot more happened between the entry into the Assembly in 2016 and the presidential elections in 2017 - perhaps less important than the mentioned things, but necessary to understand the degree of resourcefulness in a situation where there is media attention focused on DJB. Despite all the "dots" and "red lines", DJB did not offer much that was significant outside the sphere of economics, so from that angle, increased visibility led to increased exposure of numerous shortcomings. Undoubtedly, the deterioration of the image was caused by the still-unsolved question of whether Radulović owed a million dollars to the tax service of the United States of America and how and when he returned it, which was written about by Deutsche Welle, i.e. journalist Nemanja Rujević.
Strong announcements of lawsuits against Rujević, which did not materialize, did not help either, nor did the announcement of NUNS, which publicly criticized Saša Radulović, because he "showed irresponsible and offensive behavior towards the respected German media outlet Deutsche Welle (DW) and its journalist." .
"Even though a year has passed since the text on the DW website claims that Saša Radulović, when he moved out of the USA about 15 years ago, owed a million dollars to the American tax service, the DJB leader avoids in a direct conversation in various ways argues his denial with the journalist. Instead of finally accepting the invitation for an interview in which the journalist's story about the tax debt would be clarified, Radulović persistently tries to discredit DW and journalist Rujević. In doing so, Radulović uses party resources to put pressure on DW and its journalist, among other things, repeating threats of a lawsuit," writes NUNS in August 2017.
THE THIRD MAN: Before that, in the elections for the president of Serbia, DJB, guided by the logic "one candidate is better than two, but we will also run for a third", decides to run for Radulović for the post of president of Serbia "in order to increase the turnout" (and they assure the public that research they say that DJB has 15 percent support), and that Vučić would not win in the first round. The results of those elections speak more than any comment, and Radulović and the party leadership do not take responsibility for the catastrophic 1,41 percent of the votes won: of that in Belgrade - the same one where DJB won almost 94 thousand votes a year earlier - Radulović wins some above 14 thousand.
There is no leadership responsibility for a disastrous move and a disastrous result. Instead, before the Belgrade elections in 2018, a new disastrous decision is made: the movement that announced in May 2017 that it "does not want a Frankenstein coalition", forms a coalition with Dveri, builds its campaign on attacking the opposition and wins a total of 31.682 votes or 3,89 percent.
ACCOUNTING: Let's put things into perspective: in the 2016 parliamentary elections, DJB won almost 94 thousand votes at the Belgrade level, and the DSS-Dveri coalition won 55 thousand votes. A year later, in the presidential elections in Belgrade, Radulović received a little over 14 votes, while Boško Obradović received almost 21 votes. Performing together, in 2018 they won less than the simple sum of 2017.
The Presidency of the DJB - a year too late - resigns, and the Main Committee of the movement announces internal party elections. No, it's not a mistake: DJB remained a movement because the Administrative Court refused to register DJB in the Register of Political Parties in May 2017, for two reasons - the movement None of the offered answers preempted the DJB movement and reported the registration of the party under the name "Enough is Enough whatever", and the dispute in that case was still ongoing, and at the same time, the Administrative Court stated that the vast majority of the 10.000 signatures necessary for the registration of a political party submitted by the DJB movement - were not properly, because they were submitted on different forms.
However, in June 2017, the DJB movement adopted the party's Statute, and in December 2017, the Commercial Court rejected the lawsuit against the DJB regarding the registration of a political party, so that the DJB remains a movement.
Therefore, the DJB Presidency is resigning, and MP Branislav Mihajlović from Bor is running for the new president, who in his candidacy "transfers" the entire previous Presidency to the Program Council.
On the same day that Mihajlović ran, the DJB expelled three deputies - Nenad Božić, Vladimir Đurić and Aleksandar Stevanović - for "violating the Statute, values and principles of the DJB, disrespecting the decisions of the party bodies, trying to create clans and collapsing the entire organization." However, the three of them declared at a press conference in the Serbian Parliament that it was about "eliminating competition before the upcoming internal party elections", that no one received any decisions, and that the exclusion was carried out "on an online chat, on mobile phones". "Radulović also violated that document, the Statute, which has no legal effect," Nenad Božić, one of the excluded MPs, told Vreme. "Through that procedure, prescribed by the Statute, the board can be expelled on someone's proposal, but it is considered first by the parent board, and then it goes to the second stage, that is the whole procedure. We excluded one member from Kragujevac, and I know how long it takes - first there's a conversation, then a warning, it can't be done just like that. That's why I insist that Radulović carried out a coup, because when you break some rules and usurp resources - finances, contacts with the media - which are the resources of all of us, that's a coup. It's like if someone were to usurp the National Bank and television: he has money, he pays whoever he needs and puts out only the information that suits him," says Božić.
The DJB did not want to make an official announcement, but "Vreme" received a statement from a member of the DJB who supports Radulović: "We warned them - it is not a problem that they think the leadership should resign, but that this should not be stated publicly until everything is settled in the house. The main board has the right under the Bylaws to dissolve certain local boards that it deems to be dysfunctional or have any kind of problem, so we have dissolved those boards they are on. And with the dissolution of the committees, all members of those committees automatically ceased to be members of the party. There was no disciplinary procedure, but the committees were dissolved."
In fact, according to the Statute of the (non-existent) DJB party, the Main Board appoints and dismisses presidents, coordinators and all other elected members of territorial boards on the proposal of authorized proponents and suspends the work of territorial boards on the proposal of the Presidency. However, there are two problems: one is that the Presidency made a proposal to expel people who could be opponents of Branislav Mihajlović. Another problem is that in the DJB announcement there is not even a word about the expulsion of entire committees, but only deputies and councilors.
What comes next? According to the Rulebook, the president is elected with the majority of all Assembly delegates, which practically means that it is very possible that on April 21, when the DJB Assembly is scheduled, the new president will not even be elected. In that case, the old Presidency, with Radulović as president, remains at the head of the movement for another 6 months, when new elections are scheduled.
Nenad Božić gave "Vremena" an email from Saša Radulović, in which he convenes an "extraordinary online session of the assembly" (which, by the way, was never held). In it, among other things, it is written: "Consensus building is crucial for the progress of the organization." As with all other decisions of any DJB body, a majority (50 percent+1) of all members of the assembly is required for a decision of the assembly. This kind of voting is foreseen by the Statute of the DJB from the very beginning because it points to the strong legitimacy that such voted decisions carry. This threshold of victory in the elections obliges the candidates to build consensus and gather people, to join strong teams, and not to divide the party and create clans. No candidate who focuses on attacking others and creating clans will be able to count on such a high threshold of support and such candidacies are doomed to failure. I expect that the organization will show maturity and that we will reach a team that will receive the necessary support. In the event that no candidate with his team is able to get 50%+1 votes, the rules stipulate that the old presidency continues to lead the party for another 6 months until the new elections. There were suggestions that instead of this, the candidate who had the most votes should be elected. The old presidency was composed of members of the founding committee and has and will have indisputable legitimacy in the party and certainly much greater than the candidate who managed to collect 30 or 40 percent of the vote. That's one reason. The second reason is even more important. This provision with the old presidency is a defense against all candidates who would think that by breaking up the party, creating clans and gaining the minority support of 30 or 40 percent of the delegates, they can carry out a successful strategy of taking over the party. Only strong candidates, with strong teams and support, who will build consensus and gather people can count on the support of 50 percent+1 vote. This last defense prevents scenarios of negative campaigns and party fragmentation and directs all energy to building strong teams and consensus. I repeat once again, this is not the expected scenario and is a protective measure that says: build consensus and strong teams."
The one who is malicious, to this attitude towards democratic principles and the relationship between the majority and the minority, could only add Nebojsa Stefanović's famous sentence before the 2014 elections: "I would like the citizens, by going to the polls, to enable the leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Aleksandar Vučić to has the unhindered opportunity to decide for himself how he wants Serbia to look like."
