Protest against SPS SI membership

Bosnia’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) has started a regional initiative against accepting the SPS into the Socialist International. Zlatko Lagumdzija said that as a part of the preparations for the Socialist International congress to be held in Athens from June 29 until July 3, he had officially started a regional initiative to prevent the acceptance of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) into the Socialist International (SI). Protest against SPS SI membership Lagumdzija sent a letter to the presidents of the SI and the European Socialists, and all SI sister parties from the region and the EU, in which he called on them to thwart the attempt to rehabilitate Slobodan Milosevic’s SPS. The letter, seen by Beta, states that any kind of acceptance of the SPS would represent a tremendous mistake by “our global, left-wing community, even a kind of betrayal of all of us who, over the last few years, have preserved and upheld the true values of the European Left in our region.” "The SPS’ ideological legacy, which is more characteristic of right-wing totalitarian parties, as well as their practical responsibility for the wars started by Slobodan Milosevic, disqualifies the party as a potential member of the SI, until they renounce that heritage in words and deeds,” Lagumdzija writes. He claims that the SPS does not want to renounce that legacy “and that that can best be seen in the coalition with the Serb Radical Party (SRS) led by war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj, thus allowing a follower of fascist ideology to become Belgrade mayor." "Regardless of the possible coalition the SPS might form at state level with the Democratic Party, we think that the price of a pro-European Serbian government must not be paid with the reputation of the Socialist International and the social-democratic parties of the region,” Lagumdzija concludes.

Protest against SPS SI membership

Lagumdžija sent a letter to the presidents of the SI and the European Socialists, and all SI sister parties from the region and the EU, in which he called on them to thwart the attempt to rehabilitate Slobodan Milošević’s SPS.

The letter, seen by Beta, states that any kind of acceptance of the SPS would represent a tremendous mistake by “our global, left-wing community, even a kind of betrayal of all of us who, over the last few years, have preserved and upheld the true values of the European Left in our region.”

"The SPS’ ideological legacy, which is more characteristic of right-wing totalitarian parties, as well as their practical responsibility for the wars started by Slobodan Milošević, disqualifies the party as a potential member of the SI, until they renounce that heritage in words and deeds,” Lagumdžija writes.

He claims that the SPS does not want to renounce that legacy “and that that can best be seen in the coalition with the Serb Radical Party (SRS) led by war crimes suspect Vojislav Šešelj, thus allowing a follower of fascist ideology to become Belgrade mayor."

"Regardless of the possible coalition the SPS might form at state level with the Democratic Party, we think that the price of a pro-European Serbian government must not be paid with the reputation of the Socialist International and the social-democratic parties of the region,” Lagumdžija concludes.