Velimir Simonović () was a Serbian academic and politician. He served five terms in the Serbian parliament between 1991 and 2007. Simonović was at different times a member of the Democratic Party (DS), the Democratic Centre (DC), and the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).
Early life and career Simonović was born at Stara Planina in Staro Bučje, Zaječar municipality, in what was then the Timok Oblast of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. He later rose to the position of full professor at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in the time of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Batić Bačević, "Svetosavski maskenbal", NIN, 2004 [listed as 20 September 2023], accessed 11 January 2026. Simonović specialized in computer science prior to the start of his political career.Borba, 17 January 1991, p. 9.
Politician Democratic Party (1990–95) In 1990, Serbia transitioned from a one-party socialist state to a (nominal) multi-party democracy. For the next decade, the country's political culture was dominated by the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milošević, leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). Simonović joined the country's emerging democratic opposition in 1989,Profesor dr VELIMIR SIMONOVIĆ, , Democratic Centre, 26 July 2002, accessed 11 July 2026. and in 1990 he became a founding member of the Democratic Party.
First parliamentary term Simonović was first elected to the Serbian parliament in the 1990 Serbian parliamentary election, defeating SPS candidate and noted actor Mihailo Janketić in Palilula's first division in Belgrade. Janketić finished well ahead of all other candidates in the first round of voting, but Simonović managed to consolidate the opposition vote for a second-round victory. The Socialists won a landslide majority victory overall and the DS, with seven seats, served in opposition. Over the next two years, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia dissolved and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s began.
Simonović criticized the Serbian government's draft legislation for the University of Belgrade in September 1991, saying that it amounted to a plan to nationalize the university. He was particularly critical of a proposal for the rector to appoint all faculty deans and vice-rectors, rather than having them elected by academic councils.Borba, 19 September 1991, p. 18. See also Borba, 6 April 1992, p. 8.
In March 1992, Simonović was one of twenty-two opposition parliamentarians who called for the dismissal of Serbian minister of culture Miodrag Đukić, after Đukić described the opposition as "Serbia's greatest enemy." Simonović remarked that government officials often described the opposition as "traitors" and that the opposition was not prepared to accept this any longer.Milan Milošević, "See You in Court", Vreme, 30 March 1992, accessed 11 July 2026.
Simonović later criticized the government's efforts to turn the newspaper Politika into a state-owned enterprise. He suggested that the government could simply establish its own newspaper, if it so chose, and leave Politika to be independent and democratic.Borba, 25 July 1992, p. 5.
Second parliamentary term Serbia adopted a system of proportional representation prior to the 1992 Serbian parliamentary election. (Simonović and other opposition parliamentarians had proposed a compromise system of mixed proportional representation,Borba, 11 September 1992, p. 5. but their idea was not accepted.) Under the new system, Serbia was divided into nine electoral units, each of which elected multiple members; the first one-third of assembly mandates were assigned to candidates from successful electoral lists in numerical order, with the remaining two-thirds assigned to other candidates on the lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions.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.
Simonović led the Democratic Party's list in the Niš constituency and was automatically re-elected to the assembly (due to rounding) when the list won a single mandate in the division.Borba, 8 December 1992, p. 7.Borba, 24 December 1992, p. 12.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (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), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024. The Democratic Party won eight seats in total: six on its own, and two in an electoral alliance with the Reform Democratic Party of Vojvodina (RDSV).Borba, 7 January 1993, p. 7. The Socialists won the election but fell below majority status with 101 seats out of 250. Following the vote, Simonović endorsed Federal Republic of Yugoslavia president Dobrica Ćosić's call for a unity "government of national salvation,"Borba, 8 January 1992, p. 3. but this did not take place. Instead, the Socialists continued in government with unofficial support from the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS), and the DS remained in opposition. Simonović served on the finance committee in his second term.Borba, 18 August 1993, p. 14.
Simonović was also elected to the Belgrade city assembly in the December 1992 Serbian local elections, which took place concurrently with the parliamentary vote. Elections at the city level were still held in single-member constituency seats during this period, and Simonović was elected for the division of Palilula I. The Socialists won a majority victory in the city assembly, and the DS served in opposition at this level as well.Službeni List (Grada Beograda), Volume 39 Number 3 (12 February 1993), pp. 39–40.
In September 1993, Simonović was elected to the political council of the Democratic Party.Borba, 16 September 1993, p. 6.
Third parliamentary term The Socialist–Radical alliance broke down in late 1993, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was called for December of that year. Simonović did not seek re-election in Niš but instead appeared in the third position on the DS's list in Belgrade. He was again automatically re-elected (due to rounding) when the list won eight seats in the division.Borba, 5 November 1993, p. 4.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (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), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024. The Socialists won an increased plurality victory with 123 seats and afterward formed a coalition government with the small New Democracy (ND) party; the DS improved its standing to twenty-nine seats but continued to serve in opposition. When the assembly convened in early 1994, Simonović became a member of the education committee and the committee on petitions and proposals.Službeni Glasnik (Republika Srbija), Volume 50 Number 16 (11 February 1994), pp. 356, 357.
Zoran Đinđić replaced Dragoljub Mićunović as DS leader in January 1994. In the early years of Đinđić's leadership, the party shifted away from its traditional place within the "civic" pole of Serbian politics and moved toward a position of Serbian nationalism. In October 1994, Mićunović founded the Democratic Centre, which was not initially a political party but a cultural-democratic resource base. Simonović, an ally of Mićunović, was a founding member of the new organization.Borba, 18 October 1994, p. 4.
Simonović proposed an amendment to Serbia's law on expropriation in May 1994 to better protect the rights of landowners.Borba, 5 May 1994, p. 25. The following year, he spoke against the prospect of Serbia's socially owned land becoming state-owned.Borba, 15 March 1995, p. 6.
Simonović was one of twenty-seven academics appointed by the Serbian government to an educational council in September 1994. The council's function was to provide advice to the education ministry.Borba, 14 September 1994, p. 5.
On 2 December 1995, the DS expelled Dragoljub Mićunović and Simonović on the grounds of their being "undisciplined" and having "harmed the party's reputation." Simonović was specifically accused of refusing to leave the autumn 1995 parliamentary session with other opposition members; he said that he was following an earlier party decision not to leave parliament unless it was absolutely necessary. An article in the journal Vreme from this period described him as "a university professor, an elderly gentleman, decent, tactful and moderate, one of the few of that kind in the Serbian parliament."Milan Milošević, "Living in Little Serbia", Vreme, 11 December 1995, accessed 11 July 2026.
Democratic Centre (1996–2003) Mićunović established the Democratic Centre as a political party in early 1996. Simonović joined the new party and was chosen as a member of its inaugural presidency on 2 April of that year."Shorts", Vreme, 9 April 1996, accessed 11 July 2026. In late 1996, he formed a new parliamentary group called "December 1" with former members of the Radical Party.Borba, 16 May 1997, p. 7. He was not re-elected to the Belgrade assembly in the 1996 Serbian local electionsSlužbeni List (Grada Beograda), Volume 53 Number 3 (22 February 1997), p. 1. and the Democratic Centre later boycotted the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election, ending for a time his tenure in the national assembly.
Simonović was a vice-president of the Democratic Centre by 1998. In July of that year, he urged the international community to compel Kosovo Albanian political leaders to take part in negotiations with Serbian and Yugoslavian authorities over the future of the province; he also described the ongoing insurgency in Kosovo as "pure terrorism, which we must fight fiercely against."Borba, 16 July 1998, p. 2. In November 1998, he said that the international community was placing undue restrictions on Serbia in containing the insurgency and expressed concern that the insurgents were creating incidents to give North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces an excuse to enter the province.Borba, 12 November 1998, p. 2. Serbia lost control over most of Kosovo following the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
In early 2000, the DC joined the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's continued rule. This decision brought the DC back into an alliance with the Democratic Party, which was one of the leading parties in the coalition. DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, and Milošević fell from power on 5 October 2000, a watershed moment in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics. Simonović was elected to the municipal assembly of Palilula in Belgrade in the 2000 Serbian local elections, which took place concurrently with the Yugoslavian vote; the DOS won a landslide majority in the municipality with fifty-one out of fifty-five seats, and he served afterward as a supporter of the local administration.Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, p. 33.