Jeremic Takes Serbia's Democrats to Court

Five days after being ejected from the opposition Democratic Party, Vuk Jeremic has asked Serbia's Constitutional Court to appraise the decision to expel him.

"I believe that this unconstitutional activity, this act of political violence, must be stopped through energetic and institutional action," he said on Tuesday.

The executive board of the Democrats expelled him on February 14 after he refused to return his MP's mandate.

The new party leadership had called on all former ministers from their ranks to return their mandates. Most of the former ministers have met the request.

According to Jeremic, parliamentarians received their mandates from the voters, and "nobody had the right to ask for those mandates to be returned".

In a statement for TV on Monday, Jeremic said he was not invited to a session of the Democrats' executive council and was not given a chance to defend his position, although he said this was previously agreed with the party's new head, Dragan Djilas.

Jeremic also said that if the Constitutional Court ruled that the party's decision was indeed constitutional, he would resign from parliament.

At the same time, he described Djilas as having inflicted "immeasurable damage" to the reputation of the Democratic Party, "because public office and violations of the Constitution do not go together".

The Democrats on Tuesday said Jeremic's insults showed he had joined those who did not wish the Democratic Party to get back on its feet.

"Jeremic has apparently decided to mantain his policy, as he often did in previous years, contrary to the party's decision, which is the reason why he was excluded," the party said.

The "cleaning" of the party came after the Mayor of Belgrade, Djilas, was elected as the new head last November.

The party has been in turmoil ever since last May's general elections, when the Democrats lost power nationally to the Serbian Progressive Party.

Boris Tadic, the former leader, who was also Serbian President, was widely blamed for the defeat.

At the same time, the media started leaking information on corruption among former Democrat ministers.