Radoman Božović ( sr, Радоман Божовић; born 13 January 1953) is a Serbian politician and former
Prime Minister of Serbia
The prime minister of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, премијерка Србије, premijerka Srbije; masculine: премијер/premijer), officially the president of the Government of the Republic of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, председница Влад ...
.
Biography
Božović was born in
Šipačno,
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
in 1953.
He completed grades 1-3 of elementary school in
Nikšić
Nikšić ( cnr, Никшић, italic=no, sr-cyrl, Никшић, italic=no; ), is the second largest city in Montenegro, with a total population of 56,970 located in the west of the country, in the centre of the spacious Nikšić field at the foot ...
. After elementary school he moved to
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
, and completed secondary education in
Vrbas. In 1975, he graduated from the University of
Subotica, School of Economics, where he got a job as an assistant. He obtained his master's degree in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1981 from the
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia.
Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...
. His thesis, titled "Social Ownership and Economic Relations of Socialist Self-management" and supervised by
Ivan Maksimović and
Dragutin Šoškić, strongly supports "non-property ownership of social property", circumventing theoretical pitfalls of income-based economy. He returned to Montenegro for some time, working as a professor at the
Veljko Vlahović University
The University of Montenegro ( cnr, Универзитет Црнe Горe / Univerzitet Crne Gore) is a national public university of Montenegro.
Its central administration and majority of constitutive Faculty (division), faculties are located i ...
in
Titograd
Podgorica (Cyrillic: Подгорица, ; lit. 'under the hill') is the capital and largest city of Montenegro. The city was formerly known as Titograd (Cyrillic: Титоград, ) between 1946 and 1992—in the period that Montenegro forme ...
.
In Subotica he entered politics by becoming the Secretary of the Municipal Committee of the Communist League of Subotica. When he joined the
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia ( sr, Социјалистичка партија Србије, Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) is a political party in Serbia. It is led by Ivica Dačić.
It was founded in 1990 as the direct successor to ...
,
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
predicted a great future for him. In subsequent years he held a number of public offices. He was elected into the Parliament of Vojvodina in 1990. In 1991 he became the President of the Executive Council of Vojvodina. Then, he became one of Vojodina's representatives in, and soon afterwards the President of, the Parliament of
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
. As an SPS MP in the
Serbian Parliament
The National Assembly ( sr-cyr, Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, ) is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are proportionally elected to four-year terms by secret ballot. The as ...
, the leader of the party's parliamentary group, and a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Relations with Serbs outside Serbia. Because of his experience in Vojvodina, he was elected into the SPS Executive Committee for Vojvodina, where he had supervisory control over the media in the province.
Božović became the Prime Minister of Serbia on December 23, 1991, after the previous cabinet resigned due to economic failure. As Prime Minister, he was a hardcore bureaucrat, under whom more than half of Serbian economy was under state ownership. After only 100 days in office, the inflation reached a shocking 10,000%. His term was marked by a scandal in which two ministers from his cabinet were arrested, as well as his frequent arguments with opposition leader
Vojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj ( sr-Cyrl, Војислав Шешељ, ; born 11 October 1954) is a Serbian politician, founder and president of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS); he was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal ...
. On February 10, 1993, the new minority cabinet of SPS, supported by
SRS, was formed as a result of the December 20, 1992
parliamentary elections
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
. Božović opposed the support from SRS, so he refused another term.
He then became an SPS MP in the Chamber of Citizens of the Federal Assembly of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, and served as the President of the Chamber from February 3, 1993 to December 10, 1996, supported by
SPS
SPS may refer to:
Law and government
* Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO
* NATO Science for Peace and Security
* Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy
* The Standard Procurement System, fo ...
and
DPS CG
DPS may refer to:
Schools United States
* Dalton Public Schools, the public school district in Dalton, Georgia
* Dearborn Public Schools, the public school district in Dearborn, Michigan
* Decatur Public Schools District 61, the public school sys ...
), and opposed by a more than one-third minority (SRS,
NS CG,
DS, DEPOS coalition consisting of
SPO and
DSS). He was accused of instigating and allowing excessive verbal aggressiveness against the opposition MPs during sessions (notably against SPO MP Mihajlo Marković). He had a significant role in removing
Dobrica Ćosić
Dobrica Ćosić ( sr, Добрица Ћосић, ; 29 December 1921 – 18 May 2014) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician, writer, and political theorist.
Ćosić was twice awarded the prestigious NIN award for literature and Medal of Pushkin f ...
from the office of the President of Yugoslavia on June 1, 1993, and electing
Zoran Lilić
Zoran Lilić (Serbian Cyrillic: Зоран Лилић; born 27 August 1954) is a Serbian and former Yugoslav politician. He served as President of the National Assembly of Serbia from 1992 to 1994, and as President of the Federal Republic of ...
, a pro-Milošević candidate.
After 1996 he left SPS and retired to Montenegro, where he spends time skiing.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bozovic, Radoman
1953 births
Living people
Politicians from Nikšić
Serbs of Montenegro
Members of the Executive Council of Vojvodina
Prime Ministers of Serbia and Montenegro
Socialist Party of Serbia politicians
Presidents of the Tennis Federation of Serbia