Aleksandar Čotrić () is a politician in Serbia. He has served several terms in the National Assembly of Serbia since 1994 as a member of the Serbian Renewal Movement (Srpski pokret obnove, SPO). He was also an executive member of Belgrade's municipal government from 1997 to 2000 and a deputy minister in Serbia's government from 2004 to 2007, with responsibility for the Serbian diaspora.
Early life and private career Čotrić was born in Loznica, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and is a graduate of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. He has written several books and is a noted composer of aphorisms.COTRIC ALEKSANDAR , Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, accessed 7 April 2017. In a 2007 interview, he argued that the aphorism ("a sharp proverb with a twist") had become a popular literary form in Serbia by virtue of providing darkly humorous responses to the country's many social and political upheavals. He added that when he published a book of aphorisms in Sweden it failed because "everyone there is too happy." Among the lines credited to Čotrić is, "Why shouldn't we be proud of our past, when each new day is worse than the previous one?"Dan Bilefsky, "Dark One-Liners Shine a Light on the Mood of Serbs," New York Times, 2 December 2007, p. 4.
Political career The Milošević years Early years in opposition From 1990 to 2000, politics in Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were dominated by the Socialist Party of Serbia under the leadership of Slobodan Milošević. Various opposition parties sought to break Milošević's hold on power during these years, often via fragile coalitions with one another.
Čotrić was a founding member of the Serbian Renewal Movement in 1990. He first sought election to the Serbian assembly in the 1992 parliamentary election, appearing in the thirteenth position in the Užice division on the electoral list of the Democratic Movement of Serbia (Demokratski pokret Srbije, DEPOS), a coalition of opposition parties that included the SPO. DEPOS won six mandates in this division, and Čotrić was not included in his party's delegation to the assembly.ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (9 Ужице) and Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године, Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 7 April 2017. (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates from successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds would be distributed amongst other candidates on the lists by the sponsoring parties. Čotrić was not listed high enough to win an automatic mandate, nor was he granted a mandate by the SPO.)Guide to the Early Election , Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017. He was promoted to the fifth position on the DEPOS list in Užice for the 1993 election; the alliance again won six mandates for the division, and Čotrić was this time selected by the SPO to serve in its delegation.ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Нови Сад) and Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 7 April 2017. He took his seat when the assembly convened in early 1994.
In September 1994, SPO leader Vuk Drašković promoted Čotrić to the party's executive."OPPOSITION SERBIAN RENEWAL MOVEMENT APPOINTS NEW LEADING OFFICIALS," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 12 September 1994 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1247 gmt 6 Sep 94). The following year, Čotrić accused Serbian police of smuggling petrol and military supplies into the Republika Srpska territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina in defiance of an official blockade; in this context, he urged the government to protect citizens near the Zvornik border crossing from illegal police harassment or, as he said, "we will do it ourselves.""Serbian police accused of smuggling at border," Reuters News, 24 July 1995. In 1996, after the signing of the Dayton Accord and the end of the Bosnian War, Čotrić announced that the SPO would not contest elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the grounds that there were no "media, financial or any other conditions for a democratic vote in either the Republika Srpska or the Muslim-Croat federation.""MAIN SERBIAN OPPOSITION PARTY NOT TO CONTEST ELECTIONS IN SERB-HELD BOSNIA," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Europe: Central Europe & Balkans, 19 June 1996 (Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA in Serbo-Croat 1523 gmt 17 Jun 96).
The SPO and the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS) led an alliance of opposition parties known as Zajedno (Together) in the 1996 Serbian local elections, and Čotrić ran as a candidate of the alliance in Belgrade. The group was belatedly recognized as having won the Belgrade election in February 1997, following disputed official results and an extended period of street protests. Čotrić was elected to the city assemblySlužbeni List (Grada Beograda), Volume 43 Number 3 (22 February 1997), p. 1. and was subsequently named to Belgrade's executive council as minister of information. He was also appointed to the board of RTV Studio B."Belgrade assembly elects new executive council members," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 24 February 1997 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1548 gmt 21 Feb 97; "Assembly appoints city-owned Studio B Radio-TV board," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 24 February 1997 (Source: Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, Pale, in Serbo-Croat 1852 gmt 21 Feb 97); "Radicals attack new Belgrade mayor," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 28 February 1997 (Source: `Nasa Borba', Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 0955 gmt 26 Feb 97). In May 1997, he announced that the city would sue the Tanjug state news agency for "carrying vicious lies about the new city authorities" and for not meeting contractual financial obligations. He was quoted as saying, "Over the last three months since the new authorities were installed in Belgrade, Tanjug has not carried a single positive or unbiased piece of news. Only negative commentaries based on fabrications have been carried."Belgrade authorities to sue news agency over "vicious lies", British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 28 May 1997 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1203 gmt 26 May 97).
Breakup of Zajedno The SPO contested the 1997 parliamentary election on its own, and Čotrić was re-elected after receiving the top position on the party's list in the Šabac division.The SPO won two parliamentary mandates in Šabac. See ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (13 Шабац) and Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године, Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 1 March 2017.
The Zajedno alliance collapsed in the Belgrade city assembly shortly after the 1997 parliamentary election, and the SPO was able to take all of the major positions in the city government, supported informally by delegates from the Socialist Party and the Serbian Radical Party. On September 30, Čotrić was chosen by the new city government as chair of the board of RTV Studio B."Belgrade city council reshuffles Studio B TV board," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 2 March 1997 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1022 gmt 30 Sep 97). In February 1998, he announced that the station would probably not renew Voice of America's "America Calling Serbia" program due to what Čotrić described as its un-objective editorial policy."Belgrade TV plans to drop Voice of America programmes," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 6 February 1998 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 2057 gmt 4 Feb 98). (Later in the same week, the station's editor-in-chief Dragan Kojadinović announced that the transmissions of the program would continue, following assurances by Voice of America that changes would be made."Local Belgrade TV station to continue broadcasts of Voice of America," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 9 February 1998 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1504 gmt 6 Feb 98).)
In 1998, Čotrić said that the SPO favoured the presence of international observers during negotiations between Serbia and Albanian nationalist groups over the status of Kosovo-Metohija; he added that the Albanian side "[did] not have any arguments to sustain its unrealistic secessionist demands" and that the presence of international observers would deprive the Albanian side of "an alibi for its refusal to take part in negotiations.""Opposition party favours foreign envoys in Kosovo as observers," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 8 May 1998 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1832 gmt 6 May 98).
Renewed opposition to Milošević The SPO consolidated its partnership with the Socialist Party by joining the Yugoslavian government in January 1999, but the alliance proved to be short-lived: SPO leader Vuk Drašković resigned from the government in April against the backdrop of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and the party returned to opposition at the federal and republic levels. The SPO remained the governing party at the city level in Belgrade.
In April 1999, Čotrić spoke publicly against efforts by the Yugoslav Army to influence Studio B's editorial policy."Army takes control of Studio B newscasts," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 28 April 1999 (Source: Studio B radio web site, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1700 gmt 27 April 1999). He took part in protests against the Milošević administration after the end of NATO's campaign,"'Several hundred' gather in Leskovac for opposition rally," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring - Political, 20 July 1999 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1916 gmt 19 Jul 99). and in November 1999 he accused the government of having tried to assassinate Drašković, following a suspicious car crash that killed four leading SPO members and that Drašković himself barely survived.Julijana Mojsilovic, "Walkout casts doubt on Serb election demand," 9 November 1999. As 1999 came to an end, Čotrić announced that the SPO would lead demonstrations for early elections in Serbia and Yugoslavia."Main Serb opposition party backs pro-vote rallies," Reuters News, 26 December 1999. The following March, he joined other opposition leaders at a rally in Kraljevo to protest against a media crackdown by the state authorities."'About 10,000' protest against TV clampdown in Kraljevo," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 24 March 2000 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1836 gmt 22 Mar 00).