Another SPS resignation follows Ružić expulsion as governing board member quits party

Mateja Ranković has left the Socialist Party of Serbia, declaring that Branko Ružić’s expulsion marked a collapse in the party’s dignity and integrity.

Ranković submitted an irrevocable resignation from the SPS Main Board, its youth executive council, the party’s municipal committees in Čukarica and his post as deputy youth leader there. He said he no longer wanted to sacrifice his political engagement, ideology and ambitions for the personal interests of leaders who were steering the party in their own interests rather than those of the party and its members.

“Party bodies have therefore become a mere formality used to justify decisions that have neither legality nor legitimacy,” Ranković said. He accused the leadership of relying on censorship, blackmail and threats, and said no genuine fighter for the party, Serbia and its people should accept that.

“

Party bodies have therefore become a mere formality used to justify decisions that have neither legality nor legitimacy.

Ranković also challenged the party’s justification for expelling Ružić, one of the SPS’s best-known members and a party vice-president. He said the decision did not reflect a consensus among the party’s statutory commission, leadership, bodies or membership, despite official statements and media appearances defending it.

The resignation follows that of Ivan Đoković, a former Vojvodina deputy premier and provincial secretary for economy and tourism. Đoković cited opposition to Ružić’s expulsion and support for him after years of disagreement with parts of the SPS leadership’s policy. The party expelled Ružić after its Statutory Commission unanimously said he had knowingly and continuously violated the statute, failed to implement party decisions and caused major political damage. Ružić said the decision had been made politically elsewhere and accused the SPS of becoming “a branch of the SNS.”

“

A branch of the SNS.