Dragan Marković Palma, a politician and leader of the United Serbia party, who died at the age of 64 after a battle with illness, was buried today in his native village.
The family of Dragan Marković Palma received condolences in the politician’s village, where numerous friends, associates, and relatives gathered two hours before the funeral.
The priest delivered a speech:
“Dear brothers and sisters, mourners, Dragan has gathered us here today in this endowment of his to pray to God for his soul… With this funeral prayer today, we commend our Dragan to the Lord to receive him into the Heavenly Kingdom and to resurrect him on the last day… Today, Dragan is filled with a different joy, regardless of the fact that we are filled with sorrow, especially with his grandchildren whom he loved endlessly, and they loved him too. Dragan helped everyone; there was not an ounce of selfishness in him. Dear family, dear people of Jagodina, dear associates, praying for the repose of his soul, we have no doubt that our Dragan is in the Heavenly Kingdom,” the priest said, among other things, during his speech after the funeral service.
The funeral service was held in the Church of St. John the Baptist, which Dragan Marinković Palma built with his family.
Dragan Marković Palma died in his home, and on this occasion, Ivica Dačić, the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, expressed his emotions.
“He was killed by stress. He didn’t talk about his illness; he suffered for himself, and he never complained that anything hurt him. That’s the kind of man he was. He called me a few days ago to meet, and now I’ll regret that it didn’t happen. We must cherish the memory of him, thank him for everything; he was like a brother to me,” Dačić concluded.
Palma was born in 1960 in Končarevo and graduated from a vocational school.
He was a private entrepreneur and owner of the “Palma” company. He owned the “Palma Plus” television station and the “Palma’s Tigers” kickboxing club and ran the “Third Child” fund. Palma was named the best manager and entrepreneur in Serbia in 1995. He began his business career by helping his father burn bricks and later began renting tents for weddings. Soon after, Marković bought a truck and started transporting coal. In this business, he became a monopolist in supplying the trade union of the Cable Factory and then supplied coal to the Yugoslav People’s Army. He opened the zoo in Jagodina in 2006.
He entered politics in the 1990s, more precisely in 1993, when he co-founded the Serbian Unity Party with Željko Ražnatović Arkan and Borislav Pelević, and in 1998 became the party’s vice president. In the 2000 elections, he was elected a member of Parliament on the SSJ list and remained in that party until 2003. In 2004, he founded the United Serbia party, which won the most votes in Jagodina and Pomoravlje and which, in the 2007 parliamentary elections, entered into a coalition with the Democratic Party of Serbia and Nova Srbija and won two parliamentary seats.
Jagodina received city status in 2008, and Marković then became the first mayor. From 2008, he was a member of the Serbian Parliament, but due to a conflict of interest, he resigned in September 2011.
After the 2012 elections, Marković became a member of Parliament again, as well as the president of the Jagodina City Assembly. He held these positions after the elections in March 2014 and 2016. He was also elected president of the City Assembly after the 2020 elections.
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Source: Blic Photo: Danica Božović / Ringier