Dragoljub Micunovic, one of the founders of the modern Democratic party, dies aged 95

BELGRADE - Serbian politician Dragoljub Micunovic, the first president of the Democratic Party following its renewal in 1990, died on Tuesday aged 95, the Democratic Party has announced.

In a statement, the party said Micunovic was a part of a generation of people who knew the price of freedom as they had paid it personally but had never given up on the fight for a democratic Serbia.

"For the Democratic Party, his name remains a part of our identity, our renewal and our commitment to continuing the fight for a Serbia of free citizens, strong institutions and democratic values," it also said.

Micunovic was born in 1930 near Kursumlija, southern Serbia.

After taking a degree in philosophy from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1954, Micunovic became an assistant professor at the faculty's department of philosophy in the early 1960s.

He began his political career as a leader of the 1968 student demonstrations, due to which he was subsequently arrested and had his passport seized by authorities.

He was banned from teaching at the university and publishing his works in the then Yugoslavia.

In early 1975, Micunovic was purged from the university, to which he returned 15 years later.

He became the leader of the renewed Democratic Party in 1990, the year in which, in the first multi-party elections, he was elected as a member of the Serbian parliament.

Two years later, he was also elected to the Council of the Republics of the assembly of the then FR Yugoslavia.

After being dismissed as Democratic Party leader in 1994, he formed a new political party, the Democratic Centre, in 1996.

In early 1999, he co-founded the DAN ("Day") coalition, comprised of the Democratic Centre, the Democratic Alternative and New Democracy.

Later that year, he was one of the initiators of a unification of Serbian opposition parties into a single bloc, which led to the establishment of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) in January 2000.

After DOS won the elections later that year, Micunovic was elected speaker of the Council of Citizens of the Assembly of FR Yugoslavia.

After the abolition of FR Yugoslavia in 2003, he was elected speaker of the Assembly of Serbia and Montenegro.

In the same year, he ran in failed presidential elections in Serbia, finishing right behind Serbian Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolic, who won the highest number of votes.

In December 2003, Micunovic became a Serbian MP following early parliamentary elections in the country.

In his political career, he also served as a member of the Assembly of Serbia and Montenegro and as honorary president of the Democratic Party.