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🇷🇸 Serbia /Elections & Politics

SPS leader in Zubin Potok quits party, accusing it of surrendering Kosovo's north

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Translated from Serbian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Branko Prodanović, the SPS municipal committee leader in Zubin Potok and a member of its main board, resigned and left the party.
  • He said the Socialist Party of Serbia had lost its political independence and criticized its policy toward Kosovo and the expulsion of Branko Ružić.
  • His departure follows a series of resignations and withdrawals from the SPS after Ružić's expulsion.

Branko Prodanović, who led the Socialist Party of Serbia's municipal committee in Zubin Potok, has resigned from all party positions and left the SPS. He also served on the party's main board.

In his resignation, Prodanović said the SPS had lost its "political independence" and "own identity." In his view, the party had become increasingly subordinate to the interests of the Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS.

Political independence

· Branko ProdanovićHe said the SPS no longer possessed political independence.

He was especially critical of the authorities' policy toward Kosovo. Prodanović said he could not accept a policy that, as he put it, had "led to the surrender of the north of Kosovo, the erosion of our people's position, and the suppression of the interests, rights and security of the people who live there."

Led to the surrender of the north of Kosovo, the erosion of our people's position, and the suppression of the interests, rights and security of the people who live there.

· Branko ProdanovićHe criticized the authorities' policy toward Kosovo.

"As someone who lives in Zubin Potok and directly shares the consequences of such a policy with my fellow citizens, I cannot accept silence on such important issues for the sake of political obedience, coalition relations or party discipline," he wrote.

Prodanović also cited the expulsion of Branko Ružić as an immediate reason for his departure. He called the way the decision was made "a worrying message to everyone within the party who thinks differently."

As someone who lives in Zubin Potok and directly shares the consequences of such a policy with my fellow citizens, I cannot accept silence on such important issues for the sake of political obedience, coalition relations or party discipline.

· Branko ProdanovićHe explained why he could not accept the party's position on Kosovo.

The SPS expelled Ružić on Aug. 31 after more than three decades of membership, saying he had repeatedly violated the party statute, ignored decisions by party bodies and damaged the party through his failure to follow its unified policy. Ružić said the decision had been made politically "somewhere else" and accused the SPS of accepting the role of an "SNS branch." He later resigned his parliamentary mandate. Several other SPS officials have since resigned or left, including figures from Kuršumlija, Vojvodina, Paraćin and the party's main board. Prodanović said he was not abandoning the socialist idea, but "the party that abandoned that idea."

The party that abandoned that idea.

· Branko ProdanovićHe said he was leaving the SPS rather than abandoning socialism.
About this summary

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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