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'Boris Tadić' (Serbian: Борис Тадић; born 15 January 1958) is the President of Serbia. A psychologist by profession, he is a member of the social democratic Democratic Party.

Contents

Early life

Political career

Presidency

Security issues

Personal life

References

External links

Early life

Boris Tadić was born on 15 January 1958 to Ljubomir Tadić, a philosopher, and Nevenka Tadić, a psychologist, in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. His grandparents died in the Ustaše genocide.
Tadić was raised in Belgrade and graduated from the University of Belgrade with a degree in pyschology. He worked as a journalist and eventually taught psychology at a Belgrade gymnasium. Tadić was involved in the Yugoslav democracy movement.
After the Yugoslav Wars, Tadić advocated reform and Westernisation in the Balkans.

Political career

Tadić joined the Democratic Party, founded in 1919 but suppressed in communist Yugoslavia, when it was re-established as a modern social democratic party in 1990. The Democrats won seven seats in the National Assembly that year.
Tadić's party, a member of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, played a key roll roll in the Bulldozer Revolution that toppled Slobodan Milošević in 2000.
Tadić served as both Minister of Telecommunications and Minister of Defence in the government of Zoran Đinđić. In 2003, he was elected to the National Assembly.
Đinđić's assassination in 2003 led to a leadership convention in 2004, which Tadić won. He defeated Tomislav Nikolić of the nationalist Radical Party in the run-off of the 2004 presidential election with 53.34% of the vote. He was inaugurated on 11 July of that year.

Presidency

As president Tadić has pursued a pro-Western foreign policy. On 28 September 2005 he met with Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City, making him the first Serbian head of state to be granted an audience with a pope. This helped improve traditionally strained Catholic-Orthodox relations.
Tadić presided over the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006. He was the first foreign head of state to visit Montenegro after it became independent on 8 June, promising to continue friendly relations. Serbia declared indepdendence as well, and Tadić personally raised the flag of Serbia at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
Tadić took part in the events marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution, unveiling a plaque in honour of Imre Nagy with Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány at the Serbian embassy in Budapest.
In 2007, Tadić issued an apology to Croatia for all of Serbia's crimes committed during the Croatian War of Independence.^[1]

Security issues

On 1 December 2004 Tadić’s presidential motorcade was involved in a traffic accident. Miroslav Cimpl, a Serb employee of the local American embassy, repeatedly crashed his vehicle into presidential motorcade although the President's car was not personally affected. Cimpl fled the scene but was later arrested after the Serb government complained to the embassy. A subsequent investigation concluded that Cimpl did not intend to harm Tadić.
The public drew a connection between this incident and a similar occurrence in February 2003 when a man attempted to kill then-Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić by ramming his vehicle with a truck on the highway.

Personal life

Besides his native language, Tadić also speaks English and French. He is married to Tatjana Tadić with whom he has two children.

References

1. Tadić apologized to Croatian citizens at B92

External links

★ Official Web Site of The President of Serbia

★ People´s Office of the President

★ Official Presidential Campaign Website

★ Democratic Party Website