Dragan Đilas

Dragan Đilas (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Ђилас, pronounced [drǎɡan d͡ʑîlaːs]; born 22 February 1967) is a Serbian opposition leader, businessman and media executive who has been the president of the Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) since its founding in April 2019. He previously served as the mayor of Belgrade from 2008 to 2013 and as president of the Basketball Federation of Serbia from 2011 to 2016. A long-time member of the Democratic Party (DS), he led the party between 2012 and 2014. Since 2024, Đilas has been serving as a member of the National Assembly, a position he had also held on two earlier occasions.

Born and raised in Belgrade, Đilas graduated from the University of Belgrade. He began his career as a journalist at Radio Index and in 1989 co-founded Radio B92, later becoming editor of its news program. He gained prominence in 1991 as one of the students leading the demonstrations against Slobodan Milošević. He left journalism in 1994 to become media director at the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, later building a successful business career in media and marketing.

Đilas entered politics in the early 2000s as a close associate of President Boris Tadić. He served as director of the People's Office of the President (2004–2007) and minister without portfolio in charge of the National Investment Plan in the second cabinet of Vojislav Koštunica (2007–2008). In November 2012 he was elected president of the Democratic Party, serving until May 2014, when he resigned following the party's poor 2014 electoral results.

As mayor of Belgrade, Đilas oversaw several major infrastructure projects, including the construction of the Ada Bridge and the introduction of the BusPlus ticketing system. After a brief withdrawal from politics, he returned in 2018 as an opposition candidate in the Belgrade City Assembly election, later co-founding the opposition coalition Alliance for Serbia before establishing the Party of Freedom and Justice.

A polarizing figure in Serbian politics, Đilas is seen by supporters as a capable opposition leader offering a pro-European and reformist alternative to the government of Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).^[1] Critics, however, portray him as a representative of the old political elite and frequently accuse him of corruption and misuse of office, allegations he denies.^[2]

Dragan Đilas was born on 22 February 1967 in Zemun, Belgrade, and was named after his paternal grandfather.^[3] His father, Dušan, was born in the village of Očigrije near Bihać, while his mother, Jovanka (née Grbić), was born in Bački Brestovac, though her family was originally from Plitvička Jezera in Lika. He has a younger brother, Gojko. Although often asked, he is not directly related to Milovan Đilas, though they may share a distant ancestor.^[4]

Until the age of 12, Đilas lived in Zemun, where he attended the Petar Kočić Elementary School, before moving with his family to New Belgrade, where he continued his education at the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Elementary School. He began secondary school at the Zemun Gymnasium and later transferred to the Ninth Belgrade Gymnasium. He went on to study mechanical engineering at the University of Belgrade, graduating as an aircraft engineer.^[5]

During his studies, Đilas became active in student politics. In March 1991, only days after the violent 9 March protests in Belgrade, he confronted President Slobodan Milošević during a visit to the University of Belgrade, speaking to him in a tense exchange that was broadcast on state television.^[6][7] That same year, as student vice-chancellor, he played a prominent role in organizing demonstrations against Milošević. He again took part in student protests in 1992, and continued to be engaged in anti-Milošević activism throughout the 1990s.^[8]

After completing his compulsory military service in 1986, Đilas began working as a trainee journalist at Radio Index.^[9] In 1989 he was among the founders and co-owners of Radio B92, where he served first as editor of the student program and later of the news program, remaining there until 1994. He then left journalism to become media director at the Belgrade office of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi.^[10]

In 1995, Đilas moved to Prague, where together with his godfather Mlađan Đorđević and several friends he founded MD International, a company specializing in sports broadcasting rights. In 1998 he co-founded the Multikom Group, which operated across the former Yugoslavia. Through Multikom he also became one of the owners of Direct Media, a major regional company in the field of media advertising and sports rights,^[11] which was acquired by United Media in 2018.^[12]

Đilas and several associates established the production company Emotion Production in 2000, which produced shows for B92 as well as other television stations. Emotion became best known for its reality programming, achieving particular success with the Serbian edition of Big Brother.^[13]

Over the years Đilas faced accusations of being a hidden owner of numerous Serbian media outlets. In a 2011 interview with the investigative outlet KRIK, he denied direct involvement in editorial policies, stating that Direct Media had only provided financial support to some newly established media outlets through advertising.^[14]

Even though he was politically active in various forms since his early youth, Đilas officially entered politics in 2004 when he joined the Democratic Party (DS).^[15]

On October 1, 2004, Đilas became the director of the People's Office, instituted by the newly elected President of Serbia Boris Tadić. The creation of People's Office was one of Tadić's election promises at the June 2004 presidential elections. Đilas stayed in the position until May 2007 when the new Government of Serbia was finally formed by the DS and the DSS-NS coalition almost 5 months after January 2007 parliamentary election. He became the Minister without Portfolio in charge of the National Investment Plan (NIP).

His tenure, however, was short-lived since the government fell in February 2008 following the declaration of independence of Kosovo.

Đilas' time in office was marked by frequent vicious clashes with the government colleague Minister for Capital Investment Velimir Ilić. The two already had history^[16] of public feuding when they became part of the same cabinet in May 2007. It didn't take long for their feud to reignite and in October 2007 things boiled over when Ilić placed an angry, obscenity-laced phone call to Đilas' office, the transcript of which ended up in Serbian media.^[17]

On 19 August 2008, Đilas was sworn in as the new Mayor of Belgrade.

During the 2008 Belgrade mayoral election campaign, Đilas was often denounced as a "tycoon" by the Liberal Democratic Party due to his amassed personal wealth. There was even a wall-spraying campaign with the phrase "Đilas Tajkun" written on various buildings around Belgrade. However, the party denied any link with the sprayed writings.

He was dismissed as mayor on 18 November 2013 and Siniša Mali was appointed as president of the Temporary Council of Belgrade.

In November 2012, he was elected president of the Democratic Party, replacing Boris Tadić.^[18][19] After the poor election results in the 2014 parliamentary elections, the DS Election Assembly was held in May, where he lost the party presidency to Bojan Pajtić. In October 2014, he resigned as a member of the National Assembly and withdrew from public life.^[20]

He left the party in June 2016, but did not want to comment on the reasons for such a decision.^[21]

After Belgrade City Council elections in 2018 when his list won 18.93% of the popular vote, Đilas announced a formation of a new opposition political alliance – as a counterweight to ruling SNS. His ambition was to gather all opposition political parties and organizations, regardless of their political orientation. He partially succeeded in this, and SzS was officially formed in September 2018, gathering both center left parties like DS and center right parties like NS.^[22] Since Đilas welcomed Dveri (a right wing political party) into the alliance, some liberal and left leaning organizations (notably Saša Janković's PSG) refused to take part in the alliance, though they stated they are willing to cooperate on various subjects, especially on the matter of election organization.^[23][24]

The Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) was founded in the Belgrade municipality of Stari Grad on 19 April 2019. Đilas was elected as party president, Borko Stefanović as deputy leader and vice-president, and Marinika Tepić and Dejan Bulatović as vice-presidents. The party was able to forgo the usual registration process for political parties in Serbia when Bulatović permitted his Zelena Ekološka Partija – Zeleni to be re-constituted; legally, the SSP is a successor to Bulatović's party.

In 2020, SSP boycotted the parliamentary elections together with a considerable number of other opposition parties.^[25]

Đilas is in favor of Serbia's accession to the European Union,^[26][27] claiming that citizens of Serbia are "part of the European family of nations",^[28] and that the accession to the EU should be Serbia's strategic goal.^[27]

In April 2014, he said that the ideas that Serbia could seek compensation from NATO countries for the bombing in 1999 were "unfounded", although, as he said, "enormous" damage was inflicted on Serbia at the time.^[29] When asked whether Serbia's accession to NATO would accelerate its accession to the EU, Đilas stated that Serbia was "destroyed in the NATO bombing", that "thousands of people were killed" and that it is why it is "pointless" to talk about this topic, adding that Serbia should cooperate with NATO, "which we have been doing for a long time for the security of all who live in this part of Europe," but that Serbia's membership in NATO "is really not a topic."^[30]

Đilas stated that when it comes to the issue of the disputed territory of Kosovo, the solution is not "partition, but reconciliation", and that Kosovo belongs to both Serbs and Albanians.^[31] In September 2019, Đilas told the media that his party's plan for the reconciliation process of Serbs and Albanians envisions that people who committed war crimes or incited war crimes cannot participate in the reconciliation process,^[32] while in October 2019 he said "I would never sign an agreement recognizing Kosovo's independence, which is against our laws, international law and contrary to concepts such as morality and the part I still believe in."^[33]

In one newspaper article, Đilas wrote that he stands for state capitalism and that only state investment, primary in agriculture and energetics, can start up Serbian economy. Instead of privatizing PKB, he proposes a system of state-owned agricultural enterprises which will encourage development of agriculture and food industry.^[34]

Đilas is the founder and vice president of Naša Srbija, a humanitarian organisation for Serbian children who were left without one or both parents in the wars in the former Yugoslavia.^[15]

He married Milica Delević in 1994. Delević, also politically active, served as head of the Office for Cooperation with the European Union under the Council of Ministers (2003–2004), later as deputy to Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić (2007–2008), and as director of the Serbian Government’s Office for European Integration (2008–2012).^[35] The couple divorced in 2007 and have two daughters, Sofija and Jovana.

In September 2009, Đilas married Iva Pelević, a physician, with whom he had a daughter, Ana, and a son, Vuk.^[36] The couple divorced in 2013.^[37]

• Mayor of Belgrade

• Biography of the Mayor of Belgrade
• Biography of Dragan Đilas