WHO WAS DRAGOLJUB MICUNOVIC: Political prisoner on Goli Otok, philosopher and one of the most famous opposition figures of the nineties!

Today, the long-time president of the Democratic Party, Dragoljub Micunovic, passed away. He was a philosopher, university professor, and the founder and first president of the DS. His political career was also marked by the position of President of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro, and he was also the President of the Chamber of Citizens of the Federal Assembly of the FRY, as well as one of the most prominent opposition leaders of the nineties.

As stated in his biography on Istinomer, Micunovic was born in 1930 in Toplica in the south of Serbia, and spent his early childhood in Skopje, where his father served. Following the fascist occupation in 1941, his family, along with other Serbian families, was expelled to Serbia. During the Second World War, he lived as a refugee in Merdare and completed the lower grades of gymnasium. After the war, he continued gymnasium in Kursumlija and Prokuplje.

As an eighteen-year-old gymnasium student, he was arrested and, without an indictment or trial, spent 20 months in prison and the camp on Goli Otok.

Upon leaving the camp, he passed his graduation exam in Prokuplje and enrolled in philosophy studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, where he graduated in 1954. He defended his doctoral thesis in the field of logic of social research at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.

He taught the history of social and political theories at the Department of Philosophy and Sociology. During that period, he was active in the editorial board of the journal “Filozofija”, the council of the journal “Praksis”, and the board of the Korcula Summer School of Philosophy, which at that time was one of the most prestigious gathering places for philosophers in the world.

In January 1975, the Assembly of Serbia made an unconstitutional decision declaring Micunovic, along with seven of his fellow professors, politically unsuitable for professorial work and, despite the unanimous protest of university colleagues, he was removed from the University.

Only after 15 years did he return to his professorial work. He was a member of many professional journals, gave lectures at universities in America and Germany, and published five books and over 100 scientific papers.

Due to the impossibility of any intellectual activity in Yugoslavia after his expulsion from the Faculty, he stayed at the University of Konstanz in Germany at the end of the seventies.

Upon his return, he engaged in scientific work at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade, and he was the director of the Institute at the time when the Institute represented the center of democratic, political, and social thought in the country. As a member of the Yugoslav Forum for Human Rights since 1988, he dedicated himself to the release of political prisoners and the reform of criminal law and criminal procedure.

He began his political career at the Faculty of Philosophy when, in 1968, he was one of the leaders of the student movement and played one of the key roles during the demonstrations as the president of the Action Committee. Because of this, he was arrested, his passport was confiscated, and he was banned from teaching at the university and publishing works in Yugoslavia.

In 1989, with a group of dissidents, he initiated the founding of the Democratic Party − the first opposition party in Serbia. At the Founding Assembly in 1990, he was elected president of the Democratic Party, and was re-elected in 1992. He resigned from this position in 1994. That year, he formed the non-governmental organization Center for Democracy Foundation.

In 1996, he founded a new political party – the Democratic Center, and was elected its president. At the beginning of 1999, he initiated the formation of the DAN coalition, which consisted of the parties Democratic Center, Democratic Alternative, and New Democracy.

In September 1999, he called on all opposition parties in Serbia to unite, organizing the “Round Table of Opposition Parties in Serbia,” which resulted in the creation of the DOS coalition.

In the first multi-party elections in Serbia, he was elected as a member of the Parliament of Serbia. As a republican MP, he was elected as a delegate to the Chamber of Republics of the Federal Assembly of the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1992. In the federal elections in 1992, he was elected as a federal MP on the list of the Democratic Party.

As a member of the opposition coalition “Zajedno”, he was re-elected as a federal MP in the Chamber of Citizens of the Federal Assembly in 1996. In the federal elections in 2000, as one of the leaders of the DOS coalition, he was once again elected as a federal MP in the Chamber of Citizens of the Federal Assembly.

Following the victory of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, in October 2000, he was elected President of the Chamber of Citizens of the Federal Assembly. When the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro was formed, in March 2003, he was elected President of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro.

In the parliamentary elections in December 2003, he was elected as a people’s deputy in the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia, and at the beginning of 2004, to the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro. Until June 2006, he was an MP in the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

He was an MP in the convocations of the Parliament of Serbia in 2007 and 2008. He was elected to the same position in the 2012 elections as well. He was the head of the DS parliamentary group until December, when he resigned.

He was the president of the Political Council of the Democratic Party, as well as a member of the Presidency and the Main Board of the DS. At the XIV Assembly of the DS held on December 18, 2010, as well as on May 31, 2014, he was re-elected president of the Political Council of the Democratic Party.

In the parliamentary elections on March 16, 2014, he was elected as a deputy in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

In the extraordinary parliamentary elections held on April 24, 2016, he was re-elected as a people’s deputy.