Since Serbia has been governed for some time by people who were seen as "political history" back then, it would not be a miracle if the prophecy that says that Boris Tadić will soon enter the government also comes true. In a biographical sense, he fully fits the profile of the team gathered around Aleksandar Vučić - a group of people who repeatedly started from scratch, repeatedly covered themselves with ashes, repeatedly ran over the positions and ideas they once stood for.
In the past two years, since he has not been the president of Serbia, Tadić has managed to reach the political bottom and start slowly rising from it; to practically bring his party to ruin and then found a new one; to bring that new party to the National Assembly in record time.
The only difference between the former president of Serbia and the once written off, but now largely resurrected rulers, is in the understanding of the position they found themselves in: while they generally endured their own defeats with dignity and worked to "get back into the match", Tadić actually he never resigned himself to the status of a loser, never silenced his own vanity and never admitted the mistakes that cost him a serious career as a statesman. Despite that, or maybe because of that, Boris Tadić never left our lives. Although he has practically no power for two years, he is always somehow there, present - with a reason or (much more often) without one.
(NEW)DEMOCRAT: When in the evening hours of May 20, 2012, he uttered the anthological sentence "Goodbye, people, see you in another movie", the former president of Serbia probably had no idea how much time he would need to choose the best scenario and the most adequate role.
Since after the election defeat he left the leadership of the party to Dragan Đilas, it seemed that he would settle down in the role of a pensioner - this was supported by the famous photo of Tadić on Vis, under a vine and in swimming trunks, which Đilas (marketing agile, as he already god given), used to explain that now is not the time for the underpants in question, but for action. But we were mistaken. A little later, Tadić was already on trips and conferences, in front of cameras and microphones: although he didn't say anything new and particularly significant, it seemed that he needed a little time to return to the stage. However, after intra-party frictions among the Democrats, in November 2012 he had to come to terms with the position of honorary president of the DS: Dragan Đilas' current was incomparably stronger, his temperament and energy much stronger, and Tadić is in the party, just like outside many pointed the finger at her as the biggest and most direct culprit for what happened to Serbia.
As the honorary president of the Democrats, Tadić performed tasks that seemed to have been created for him - he traveled here and there, gave lectures, was engaged in Telenor as an advisor for Europe and observed and commented on what was happening on the political scene from a gentleman's distance. But the devil never sleeps - especially not in the case of people who need the spotlight more than air. At the closing of the seminar of students of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Kopaonik, the honorary president opened a new chapter in his career. Addressing the students, Tadić first said that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs did not perform his duties well, that he had quarreled with Serbia with many countries, and that he achieved the most in terms of personal promotion. After dropping that "bomb", he said what was actually the news of the day: pointing out that there are people sitting in the Government of Serbia who are not fit for that job, he said that he had not given up on politics either in Serbia or on the international level, i.e. that "leaves the possibility to return". He did that, in a rather expected and unoriginal way, but still to the surprise of many.
After the announcement of this year's elections and speculation about a possible alliance between the Democrats and Zoran Živković, Tadić refused the offer to be in their election staff and announced new forms of action. At a press conference on January 30, he said he could not take responsibility for the policies the party was pursuing: "There is no reason for me to be in any political institution with those who, while we were fighting organized crime, called us mob bosses , criminals and Al Capone". Just three days later, it was announced that Tadić is forming the New Democratic Party and that he will contest the elections in a coalition with the Greens of Serbia, Nenad Čanko and Dušan Petrović. Although he did not offer anything innovative and concrete in the campaign, and devoted a good part of his time to attacks on yesterday's colleagues from the DS, Tadić managed to win 12 parliamentary seats and thereby acquire some kind of political power.
From that moment, however, Tadić's "new film" begins, which few can understand, but which - by all accounts - will have an interesting finale.
PROGRESSIVE: Already at the beginning of the negotiations on the formation of a new government, it was clear that Tadić considered himself one of the most serious candidates for a partnership with Vučić - incredible, but perhaps even a partner strong enough to set some conditions. Namely, the former president demanded that the socialists not enter the government, with whom he personally signed a reconciliation pact in 2008 and thus returned them to the position of power in full glory: "We stated a firm position that we will not enter the government with the SPS, which caused enormous damage in all sectors that were under their jurisdiction. "They ruthlessly wasted social resources with the way they ran ministries and public enterprises, which best testifies to the character of that party," he said at the time.
Four months later, he remained in the same position, using every opportunity to quarrel again with Ivica Dačić: the last open conflicts were based on mutual accusations about the situation in Galenica and the situation in the police.
These days, however, there are rumors that Vučić will punish Ivica for disobedience and finally invite Tadić to the government instead of him. If that condition were met, there is every chance that he would not hesitate for a moment. On the contrary. Everything he has done or said lately points to the conclusion that he was just waiting for the prime minister to finally come to his senses and choose him.
As soon as the political crisis in Vojvodina opened, Boris Tadić began to be mentioned as a Solomonic solution that would peacefully unite different interests. In this context, all possible and impossible combinations were considered, the democrats within the party were still arguing about Tadić's legacy and dilemmas about the meaning of re-collaborating with him, but Tadić himself tried to be very mysterious and not close any doors to himself. Noting that the Vojvodina government needs reconstruction "with radical personal and political changes", he pointed out in June that the possibility of forming a concentration government in which all parties would join together to solve pressing problems should not be ruled out. He pointed out then that the eventual entry of the SNS into that government would not "dull the edge" of his party towards the government at the republic level.
"The edge of the NDS would depend only on whether the government works well or badly and that has nothing to do with possible regional or local coalitions... Politics is a public domain and there is no place for personal intolerance." For the sake of higher goals, until now I entered into coalitions with those with whom I would never have personal relations. "Unfortunately, in Serbian politics, political behavior is still often conditioned by personal relationships, and even more often by mundane personal interests, which is an indicator of the immaturity of our political being," Tadić said.
However, these days things have become even clearer. During the formal registration of the NDS as a party, on August 22, Boris Tadić triumphantly stated that the NDS is "the only true opposition in Serbia" and that as such "does not want to come to power in Vojvodina with unreliable partners at any cost." This statement about the people with whom he unofficially negotiated until yesterday was interpreted as a step towards Vučić, or, as one interlocutor of "Politika" said, "an alibi for him to turn to the progressives and form a provincial government with them."
BORAC: This is supported by the fact that Boris Tadić has not seriously attacked the Government until now. His "edge" was actually reduced to principled criticism and a slight nod to everything that directly or indirectly concerns life in Serbia. On the last day of August, for example, Tanjugu said this: "I cannot but support the current balanced foreign policy of Serbia, because it is an attempt to continue the policy pursued during my presidential mandate and is based on four foreign policy pillars: Brussels, Washington, Moscow and Beijing."
Even in situations where he is directly attacked by Vučić's entourage (never by him personally!), Tadić sounds extremely calm and confident in himself, does not attack those who call him names and acts like a man who is clear that nothing can happen to him . After Nebojša Stefanović formed a special investigation team to investigate the sale of NIS, Tadić - as a signatory of that agreement - stated only that it was a political show: "If NIS had not been sold then, it would probably not exist today, and the damage that we would have only from the loss of jobs, it would exceed the damage we have from those parts of the contract that are not the most favorable for Serbia."
In fact, apart from the theses about Dacic, the only visible disagreement with the current prime minister Tadić expresses when it comes to Vladimir Beba Popović. After Popović's performances this year and his attacks on the former president, he said that "the problem is that the government officially cooperates with a man who is involved in spreading sodomy in the media", and that "government representatives should be asked about the justification and motivation of that cooperation". .
If it were really principled people, the issue of the relationship with Vladimir Popović or the general objections that Tadić has to the Government, they might be able to disturb the harmony in a future division of power. But there is no such danger. The main actors in this film have already shown many times their willingness to go beyond everything, even beyond their own principles, "for the sake of higher interests". In this sense, it is interesting to mention one of the more popular theories about Tadić's political future. Namely, it is rumored that he is seriously interested in the position of UN Secretary General - a position that the indispensable Vuk Jeremić has been eyeing for a while now. The former "president of the world" was on the list of the most disliked persons of Aleksandar Vučić and his team until they came to power: as soon as they got hold of Nemanjina, they no longer had any problems with Jeremic and he was given principled support in the attack on the United Nations. However, what will we do with Boris Tadić? If it is really true that he aspires to succeed Ban Ki-moon, it is certain that one of those who officially support Jeremic gave him the "green light" for such a thing. Which, again, speaks of the principledness and consistency of those who govern this country, but also of those who hang around their table in order to be anointed and supported in this or that endeavor.
TEACHER: One of Tadić's major problems in politics is his inability to realistically see the situation in which he finds himself. It was visible in many situations, and recently his attitude towards the media is illustrative in this sense.
Wanting to publish an interview with him, the daily "Danas" asked him 12 questions - common, one would say, that touch both daily politics and general political currents. But, instead of Tadić's consent, the journalist Lidija Valtner received something that will probably enter the anthology of Serbian media history - a letter that neither the late Sloba, nor Aleksandar Vučić in the role of former censor, would be ashamed of. Among other things, it says: "Dear Lidija, Your questions are below any former intellectual level of the newspaper 'Danas' and Mr. Tadić hopes that you did not manage to look at the questions again before sending them, because he thinks they sound too stupid to one could expect him to answer such questions seriously. Apart from the fact that the questions show that the person who compiled them has no basic knowledge of politics, some questions testify that their author is not able to perform a simple arithmetic operation of adding up to 126. Please, the next time 'Danas' decides to send questions to Mr. Tadić, for your journalist to show at least elementary political knowledge, but also the decency that befits a serious paper like "Danas" used to be. These questions show not only ignorance but also malice, which in this form is rare even in the worst tabloids."
The letter signed by Tadić's representative for the public provoked the reaction of all who ask anything about the media in this country, but in the final sum it showed above all that the former president forgets that he is the former, but also that it is not God's day. After he received a harsh response from all addresses, Tadić took up his pen again and continued in the same style: announcing that the answer by which they refused the interview "was not of a public nature", stating that it was "addressed to the person ordering the texts", and not journalists, with the remark that they are convinced that Vladimir Beba Popović is influencing parts of the newspaper's editorial staff. The people of Danas wrote him off in the expected tone, but that is not the issue here: what is important here is that the man who was once the president of Serbia dares to educate the media; that a man whose indecisiveness cost us a lot and whose sins we will pay for for a long time, thinks he has the moral right to transfer any connections with anyone to anyone in this country.
It is true that Boris Tadić's relationship with the media was otherwise problematic, but it was to be expected that he would at least change his behavior to some extent after the political cataclysm that he caused himself and all of us.
Unfortunately, that did not happen - probably thanks to an unprovoked grandeur complex, which has no place in communication with the media and whose consequences are in direct opposition to everything that people once voted for him for, with all his publicly proclaimed principles. And exactly the principles are something that Boris Tadić should remember when and if he sits down with Aleksandar Vučić.
