Serbia’s Ex-President Tadic Still Dreams of Final Comeback

"We will see each other in some new movie," Boris Tadic said in May 2012 after losing the presidential race to Tomislav Nikolic, one of the founders of today's ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS.

After eight years as head of state and also head of the ruling Democratic Party, DS, Tadic's failure to win another term initiated a dramatic political shift in Serbia, paving way for the ongoing dominance of the SNS, and its leader, current President Aleksandar Vucic.

The SNS's "winner-takes-all" attitude, which has included demonizing the presidential loser, has successfully spread a narrative about Tadic's "corrupt" and even "traitorous" rule ever since.

It has become a must for all politicians seeking to join ruling regime. The reign of the "yellow ones", as the SNS rudely terms the DS - that being the party's traditional colour - has become an excuse for everything bad happening in the country today.

This never-ending smear campaign is so effective also because it has some truth in it, especially for the working class in an impoverished country too weak to compete in the global economic race.

The more than decade-long rule of parties after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic's regime in 2000, of which DS was the strongest most of the time, was marked by the rise of tycoons and the legitimization of their wealth created by dubious privatizations, which left thousands of people without jobs and former industrial centres without long-term economic perspectives.

Boris Tadic addresses media after losing the presidential elections. Belgrade, Serbia, 20 May 2012. EPA/KOCA SULEJMANOVIC

The prosperity promised after the fall of Milosevic for most people never came, and the so-called "transition losers" turned to Vucic and...