Analysts: Ružić’s Expulsion Shows SPS Leader Is Sacrificing His Party to Please Vučić

Branko Ružić says his expulsion from Serbia’s Socialist Party did not surprise him. He also says he will continue working in politics, although he has not specified with whom.

The SPS Statutory Commission expelled Ružić after three decades in the party. In a statement, he said the decision made clear where it had come from and accused SPS of abandoning its political independence and identity. He said the party’s relationship with the Serbian Progressive Party was no longer one between equal partners, but that SPS had accepted the role of an SNS branch.

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For years I warned that SPS was giving up its own political independence and identity. Its relationship with the Serbian Progressive Party has long ceased to be one between equal partners. SPS has accepted the role of an SNS branch. If silence about this is the condition for remaining in such a party, then I have no problem with being expelled.

SPS said Ružić had knowingly and deliberately violated its statute over a long period. The party also accused him of failing to implement decisions by its governing bodies and its unified policy, causing serious political damage. Ružić had already been suspended from all party positions for six months in April of the previous year.

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It is a typical Quisling-like move. The party has said that its head is not in SPS, but outside SPS, and that its key interests are outside SPS. Pleasing SNS comes first.

Relations deteriorated further after Ružić attended a March 15 protest by students and citizens and publicly voiced criticism of the party. In one recent dispute over the Deliblato Sands, he said a fire there should not become an urban development plan serving certain interests. President Aleksandar Vučić later attacked Ružić and SPS, saying they had focused on money, business plans and small-scale corruption.

Political analyst Dragomir Anđelković described the expulsion as a move designed to please Vučić. Analysts speaking to N1 said the decision was expected and reflected Dačić’s effort to preserve his position by putting his party’s interests behind accommodation with the president.

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In that party to which Mr. Ružić belongs, and in Ružić himself, there have always been only money and business plans in mind. He has never dealt with anything else. His entire record has always been petty theft, small tenders and nothing more.