Boris Tadić

Boris Tadić (born 15 January 1958) is a Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia from 2004 to 2012. He led the Democratic Party (DS) from 2004 to 2012 as well, and previously served as minister of defence from 2003 to 2004.

Born in Sarajevo, he graduated from the University of Belgrade with a degree in psychology. He later worked as a journalist, military psychologist, and teacher at the First Belgrade Gymnasium. Tadić joined DS in 1990 and was elected to the National Assembly after the 1993 election. After the downfall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, he was appointed as the minister of telecommunications in the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a role which he held until 2003, after which he was appointed minister of defence in the government of Serbia. Tadić was elected president of DS a year after the assassination of Zoran Đinđić after previously serving as a member of its provisional leadership. He stood as a candidate for DS in the 2004 presidential elections, which he won after beating Tomislav Nikolić of the Serbian Radical Party in the second round.

During his first mandate, he advocated cooperation and reconciliation of the former Yugoslav countries, became the first Serbian head of state or head of government to visit the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial, and launched an initiative for the Serbian parliament to adopt a resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre. He successfully ran for re-election in 2008 after again beating Nikolić in the second round. During his second mandate, DS formed a coalition government with the Socialist Party of Serbia, its former opponent, which signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), while the EU abolished visas for Serbian citizens travelling to Schengen Area countries and Serbia received EU candidate status. Additionally, Serbia also completed its obligations to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The period during his second mandate was also characterised by the challenges of the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence and the 2008 financial crisis, leading to low rates of economic growth.

After being pressured by protests that were organised by Nikolić's Serbian Progressive Party in 2011, Tadić announced that snap elections will be held in 2012. He lost in the second round to Nikolić, who succeeded him as president of Serbia. Tadić was replaced by Dragan Đilas as the president of DS in November 2012, after which Tadić unsuccessfully sought to become the party's president again in 2014. He then left DS and formed the New Democratic Party, later renamed to Social Democratic Party, which remained a parliamentary party up to the 2020 election, which it boycotted. A self-described liberal, he is an advocate of closer ties with the European Union (EU), supports the accession of Serbia to the European Union, and is widely regarded as pro-Western-orientated, while favouring balanced relations with Russia, China, United States, and the European Union.

Tadić was born in Sarajevo, the capital of the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a republic within the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. His father, Ljubomir, was a philosopher and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. His mother, Nevenka, was a psychologist. His maternal grandfather and up to six other relatives were killed by the Croatian Ustaše during World War II.

The Tadićs are descendants of the Serb clan of Piva, in the region of Old Herzegovina, Montenegro. The family's slava (patron saint) is Saint John the Baptist. His parents frequently relocated between various cities and had moved to Sarajevo from Paris, where they pursued their doctoral studies, only a few days prior to his birth. Tadić and his family moved to Belgrade when he was three years old, and his father got a job at the newspaper Liberation (Oslobođenje).

Tadić finished Pera Popović Aga (today Mika Petrović Alas) elementary school and matriculated at the First Belgrade Gymnasium in Dorćol. During his teenage years he played water polo for VK Partizan, but had to quit due to injuries. He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy with a degree in psychology, specifically social psychology in the department of clinical psychology.

He was arrested during his studies in July 1982 for protesting the arrest of a group of students, arrested for protesting against martial law in Poland and in support of the Solidarity movement. Tadić spent one month in penal labour prison in Padinska Skela.