Marko Đurišić (politician)

Đurišić was elected as a Democratic Party city councillor in Belgrade in 1996 and 2000.[2] He took part in protests against the government of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević in July 1999, following the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.[3]

In the 2000 Serbian parliamentary election, Đurišić received the ninety-fourth position on the electoral list of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad coalition that included the Democratic Party. This alliance won a landslide victory with 176 out of 250 mandates, and Đurišić served as part of its delegation in the parliament that followed.[4] (From 2000 to 2011, parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be distributed out of numerical order. Đurišić did not automatically receive a mandate by virtue of his position on the list, although in fact he was included in his party's delegation.)[5] In 2001, he accompanied party deputy chair Boris Tadić on an official visit to Germany.[6]

The Democratic Party contested the 2003 Serbian election at the head of its own alliance and won thirty-seven mandates. Đurišić was included on its electoral list;[7] although not initially selected as part of its delegation, he was awarded a mandate on February 17, 2004, as a replacement for another candidate who had resigned.[8][9] He was subsequently chosen as president of the Democratic Party's executive board.[10] The Democratic Party was not part in government during this sitting of parliament, and Đurišić served in opposition. In August 2005, he attended an event in Poland celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of Solidarity.[11]

Đurišić received the sixty-seventh position on the Democratic Party's list in the 2007 parliamentary election. The list won sixty-four seats. He was not immediately included in the party's delegation on this occasion but was able to re-enter the assembly on May 22, 2007 as the replacement for another delegate.[12] During this period, he served as leader of the Serbian parliament's delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.[13] He was again selected to return to the legislature following the 2008 election.[14] The party returned to participation in government in 2007 and was the dominant presence in a coalition government after 2008.

Đurišić was the chief of Democratic Party incumbent Boris Tadić's campaign staff in the 2008 Serbian presidential election and was commended by Tadić following the latter's re-election. Shortly after the end of the campaign, Đurišić was described as having "bawled out" a journalist who asked a challenging question about the Democratic Party's coalition partners, and the newspaper Politika ran an editorial criticizing his actions.[15] Tadić later accused Politika of having illegally recorded a conversation with Đurišić; Politika responded by rejecting the charge and defending its actions on the basis of a commitment to the freedom of the press.[16] These events led to some friction between the newspaper and the government.

In August 2008, following an alliance between the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party of Serbia at the republic level, Đurišić announced that the two parties would also cooperate as partners in municipal governments across Vojvodina.[17] In August 2009, he remarked that Serbian politics was probably shifting in the direction of a two-party system, with the Democratic and Progressive parties being at the head of rival blocs.[18] He served on the assembly's defence and security committee during this time.[19]

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that parliamentary mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful lists. Đurišić received the eighty-fifth position on the Democratic Party's Choice for a Better Life coalition in the 2012 Serbian parliamentary election.[20] The list won sixty-seven mandates, and Đurišić did not serve in the parliament that followed. In December 2012, he voted against an internal party decision for former ministers to return their parliamentary mandates (i.e., resign from the legislature).[21]

The Democratic Party subsequently experienced a serious split, with Boris Tadić creating a breakaway group called the New Democratic Party. This group contested the 2014 election in a fusion with the Greens of Serbia and in alliance with other parties. Đurišić sided with Tadić in the split and was given the eighth position on the alliance's list for the 2014 election; the list won eighteen mandates and Đurišić was returned to the assembly,[22] where he served as chair of the New Democratic Party's assembly group.[23] Later in the year, the party changed its name to the Social Democratic Party.

Đurišić called on the Serbian government to strengthen its ties to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in December 2015, after neighbouring Montenegro was invited to join the bloc.[24]

The Social Democratic Party contested the 2016 Serbian parliamentary election in a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, as well as some smaller parties. The alliance won thirteen mandates; Đurišić received the fourth position on its list and was again returned to the assembly.[25]

There are currently four members of the Social Democratic Party in the Serbian parliament, sitting in a parliamentary group with the People's Movement of Serbia, which has one member. Đurišić serves as the group's leader. He is the vice-chair of the parliamentary defence and internal affairs committee; a member of the committee on the rights of the child; a deputy member of the committee on administrative, budgetary, mandate, and immunity issues; the chair of the parliamentary friendship group with Jordan; and a member of the friendship groups with Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Iran, Israel, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, and the United States of America.[26]

In 2019, Đurišić, along with Nenad Konstantinović joined a liberal movement called Serbia 21. Boris Tadić, the president of the Social Democratic Party denounced this move and stated that the party was in the process of expelling Đurišić and Konstantinović.[27] In March 2020, Serbia 21 announced their participation in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election as a part of the United Democratic Serbia coalition along with the Party of Modern Serbia, League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, and the Civic Democratic Forum, and some national minority parties.[28][29] Đurišić was selected to appear in first position on the list.[30]