Vojislav Koštunica
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Date of birth | March 24, 1944 |
Place of birth | Belgrade, Serbia |
Party | DSS |
Presidential term | October 7, 2000-March 7, 2003 |
Preceding president | Slobodan Milošević |
PM term start | March, 2004 |
Preceding PM | Zoran Živković |
Vojislav Koštunica [pronounced voy-ees-lav kosh-toon-ee-tsa] (born March 24, 1944) is the Prime Minister in the Government of Serbia and a lawyer from Serbia.
A law graduate from the University of Belgrade, he lost his job in 1974 after criticizing Tito's Communist government. In 1989, he became one of the founders of the Democratic Party. Later he became the leader of the new Democratic Party of Serbia. He is still president of the DSS.
Koštunica was a populist politician with no connection to the old Communist Party (from which Slobodan Milosevic's party originated), supported both by the democratic and the more nationalistic voters, so the Democratic Opposition of Serbia backed him in the presidential election of September 2000.
After turbulent events of October 2000, Koštunica was finally declared the winner of the election and remained president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 2003, when the state was replaced by Serbia and Montenegro and the position he held was abolished . Koštunica opposed the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic, and has stated his opposition to the Hague Tribunal several times. He also refused to remove Milosevic's former police chief Rade Markovic from office.
Following the parliamentary elections in December 2003, in which the DSS emerged as the largest of the democratic parties, Koštunica became prime minister in March 2004 at the head of the new minority government of Serbia with the support of the Socialist Party of Serbia.
Following the bad showing of the government candidate Dragan Maršićanin in the Serbian presidential elections, 2004, Koštunica announced that fresh parliamentary elections should be expected by the end of the year just following the adoption of a new Constitution for Serbia.
Koštunica lives with his wife and fellow lawyer Zorica Radović.