Andrija Mandić

Andrija Mandić (Serbian Cyrillic: Андрија Мандић) (born January 19, 1965, Šavnik, Montenegro, Yugoslavia) is the President of the Serb People's Party in Montenegro and Chairman of the Serb List political alliance, the strongest opposition force. He is the Head of the SL parliamentary club in the Parliament of Montenegro.

Andrija Mandic was born in 1965 in Šavnik, Socialist Republic of Montenegro, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He graduated at the Metallurgic-Technical Faculty at the Veljko Vlahović University in Titograd.

As director and co-owner of the action society for the manufacturing of colored metals, he initiated the first private production of Aluminium alloys in Montenegro. In cooperation with the Metallurgic-Technical Faculty in Podgorica he worked on projecting, manufacturing and installing equipment for production of aluminium alloys, as well as on commercial metallurgic engineering.

In 1997 he became one of the founders of the Serbian People's Party of Montenegro, when numerous members of the People's Party of Montenegro defected from the political party, disagreeing with the party's Novak Kilibarda leadership's decision to form a coalition with the ruling Milo Đukanović's Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro. SNS CG considered that NS CG abandoned the national original aims of the party.

He served numerous functions in the party, originally as a vice-president of the municipal board for Podgorica and a member of the Supreme Board of the Party, as well as a member of the Executive Board of SrNS CG. He served also one term as Director of the Party and in two terms he was the President of the Executive Board. In second before the last the Cabinet of the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Andrija was the Deputy Minister for Industry.

A relatively unknown and not prominent partial figure, in 2002 he ran for President of SNS CG and to much public amazement defeated then's President Dr Božidar Bojović. He went into conflict and was harshly criticized by Bojovic and the municipal boards that supported him, eventually the old league political leadership being ousted from the party. Mandic asserted a new directive that strictly supported the European Union and maintained the Together for Change political alliance of the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro aimed at defeating the authoritarian regime of Milo Djukanovic, and managed to take lead in front of NS CG within the alliance at the elections. The first problem he had to deal with is several SNS members defecting and forming the Democratic Serb Party under Ranko Kadić, with a more moderate line.

He led SNS into the Movement for European Serbia and Montenegro of Zoran Žižić from 2003 to 2006, that finished with the Montenegrin independence referendum during which Mandic was one of the leaders of the Bloc for Common State Serbia and Montenegro, ending in defeat. Around that time Mandic was the proponent of braking the traditional partnership with the Democratic Party of Serbia, in favor of G17 Plus.

Braking off from the SNP-led coalition, in 2006 he headed a formation of a major alliance with political parties and movements, aimed to protect the interests of Serbs in Montenegro, the Serb List, that achieved good results in the elections, which became the strongest opposition force in the parliament.

In 2007 when the National Assembly of Serbia adopted the resolution to allow Serbs abroad to obtain Serbian citizenship, he took it, which was a controversial act due to the ruling coalition's opposition to dual citizenship for Serbs. Andrija opposed the draft of the new Constitution of Montenegro that controversially renamed the official language from Serbian to Montenegrin and called the Serbian people in Montenegro not to recognize the Constitution.

Ever since he took over the party is progressing. Andrija Mandic has in 2007 led his party towards close partnership with New Serbia and controversial Serb politician Velimir Ilic.

External links

* [http://www.sns.cg.yu/kojeko/predsjednik_i_potpredsjednici.html Biography at the Serb People's Party website] sr icon
* [http://www.andrijamandic.com/ 2008 Presidential campaign website]