Vjerica Radeta (; , ; born 15 October 1955) is a Serbian politician. She is a prominent figure in the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and has served several terms in the Serbian parliament.
Early life and career Radeta was born in Livno, in what was then the People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. A graduate of the University of Sarajevo's law faculty, she later moved to Serbia and now resides in the Belgrade municipality of Zemun.VJERICA RADETA, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 6 June 2018.VJERICA RADETA, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 6 June 2018. She was secretary of the Zemun municipal assembly in the late 1990s, when the Radicals governed the municipality.
Politician The late Milošević years (1998–2000) After several years in opposition, the Radical Party joined a coalition government led by the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in February 1998, and Radeta was appointed as deputy justice minister in the government of Serbian prime minister Mirko Marjanović.VJERICA RADETA, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 6 June 2018. In February 2000, following the Kosovo War, she was included on a list of Serbian government officials banned from travelling to European Union countries."Prosiren spisak lica koja ne mogu dobiti vize za zemlje EU", B92, 28 February 2000, accessed 6 September 2018.
Radeta was given the fifth and final position on the Radical Party's electoral list for New Belgrade in the 2000 Yugoslavian Chamber of Citizens election."КАНДИДАТИ СРПСКА РАДИКАЛНА СТРАНКА ЗА ИЗБОР САВЕЗНИХ ПОСЛАНИІКА У ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ," Velika Srbija [Radical Party publication], September 2000, p. 3. The Radicals won a single seat in the division, which was automatically assigned to their lead candidate, party leader Vojislav Šešelj.ИЗБОРИ 2000: ВЕЋЕ РЕПУБЛИКА И ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (2000), pp. 40, 59. Radeta also ran for the Belgrade city assembly in the concurrent 2000 Serbian local elections and lost to a candidate of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) in Zemun's eleventh division. Both the parliamentary and the local elections were overshadowed by the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, in which longtime authoritarian leader Slobodan Milošević of the SPS fell from power after losing to DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica. The Serbian government also fell after Milošević's defeat, and Radeta's tenure as a deputy minister ended in October 2000.
Parliamentarian (2003–2012) Živković and Koštunica administrations (2003–08) Serbia held a new parliamentary election in December 2000, and Radeta appeared in the forty-second position on the Radical Party's list.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (1 Српска радикална странка – др Војислав Шешељ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 13 April 2024. The SRS won twenty-three seats, and she was not initially included in her party's assembly delegation. (From 2000 to 2011, Serbian parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order. Radeta could have been included in the SRS delegation at the start of parliament despite her low position on the list, but she was not.)Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, , accessed 13 April 2024. The DOS won a landslide victory, and the Radical Party served in opposition. Radeta received a mandate on 25 March 2003 as the replacement for another SRS member who had resigned.DRUGA SEDNICA, PRVOG REDOVNOG ZASEDANJA, 25.03.2003., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 6 September 2018.
She was given the thirty-fifth position on the Radical Party's list in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election and was awarded a mandate for a second term when the list won eighty-two seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (2. СРПСКА РАДИКАЛНА СТРАНКА - др ВОЈИСЛАВ ШЕШЕЉ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024."Skupština čeka demokrate", , Glas javnosti, 13 January 2004, accessed 28 December 2024.PRVA SEDNICA, 27.01.2004., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 18 May 2018. Although the Radicals won more seats than any other party in this election, they fell well short of a majority and continued to serve in opposition. After the election, Radeta served as deputy chair of the judiciary and administration committee and was a member of the committee on constitutional affairs.СПИСАК НАРОДНИХ ПОСЛАНИКА , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 May 2021. In 2005, she sought to amend Serbia's information law to ban the registration of media outlets that, in her words, "report[ed] notorious lies by pathological liar Nataša Kandić," a Serbian human rights activist and vocal opponent of Serbian nationalism."Serbia: B92TV receives bomb threats after broadcasting war-crimes video," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 15 July 2005 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1236 gmt 15 Jul 05).
She was included in the twelfth position on the Radical Party's list in the 2007 parliamentary election and was given a mandate for a third term when the party won eighty-one seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (4 Српска радикална странка - др Војислав Шешељ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024."Spisak poslanika za Skupštinu Srbije", Politika, 13 February 2007, accessed 24 December 2024. As before, the Radicals won the greatest number of seats but could not form government and remained in opposition. Radeta served as deputy chair of the legislative committee and as a member of the judiciary committee and the constitutional affairs committee; she was also a member of Serbia's republic election commission (RIK) during this time.СПИСАК НАРОДНИХ ПОСЛАНИКА , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 May 2021."New Serbian parliament constituted," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 14 February 2007 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in Serbian 1435 gmt 14 Feb 07).
Cvetković administration (2008–12) Radeta appeared in the eighth position on the SRS list in the 2008 parliamentary election and was again included in her party's delegation when the list won seventy-eight seats.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 11. маја 2008. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (4 СРПСКА РАДИКАЛНА СТРАНКА - Др ВОЈИСЛАВ ШЕШЕЉ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024.R. Ognjanović, "U klupama novi poslanici", Novosti, 10 June 2008, accessed 29 June 2022. The overall results of this election were inconclusive, and the Radicals afterward held discussions with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the Socialists about forming a new coalition government. This ultimately did not happen. The Socialists instead joined a coalition government led by the For a European Serbia (ZES) alliance, and the Radicals continued in opposition. In this term, Radeta again served on the legislative, constitutional affairs, and judiciary committees and was a member of the committee on inter-ethnic relations and Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with Japan.ВЈЕРИЦА РАДЕТА, , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 4 June 2022.
In July 2008, Radeta took part in a Belgrade rally against the Serbian government's decision to extradite former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague for crimes committed during the Bosnian War. At a Radical Party press conference, she said that Serbian president Boris Tadić could meet the same fate as Zoran Đinđić, the former Serbian prime minister who was assassinated in 2003 after approving the extradition of Slobodan Milošević.Jovana Gec, "Deadline for Karadzic to file appeal passes amid efforts to stall his extradition," Associated Press Newswires, 25 July 2008. Radeta was quoted as saying, "We are not threatening (him), but we are warning of the curse which followed all the traitors in Serbian history."Suzana Markovic, "Serb hardliners use Karadzic to turn up heat on pro-EU gov't," Agence France Presse, 26 July 2008. Radeta's exact words were reported and translated differently by different media sources. She also said that the Radicals had asked the Serbian Orthodox Church to state its opinion on the extradition in the hope that the church would excommunicate and cast anathemas on Tadić."Radicals' warns president of historical 'curse' on Serbian 'traitors'," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 25 July 2008 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 1341 gmt 25 Jul 08). (This did not occur, and the church did not take any action against Tadić.) Radeta's comments were widely reported in the international media, including the New York Times.See for instance "Serb's Extradition Is Challenged Over Arrest Details," New York Times, 26 July 2008, p. 10; Damir Marusic, "Don't Rest on Tadic's Laurels," Wall Street Journal, 29 July 2008, p. 13; Ian Traynor, "Serbia war crimes: Lukewarm turnout at mass rally for Karadzic," The Guardian, 30 July 2008, p. 14; Robert Marquand, "Serb radicals rally around Karadzic," Christian Science Monitor, 30 July 2008, p. 8; "Karadzic lawyer confirms appeal," Al Jazeera English, 27 July 2008; Neil MacDonald, "Belgrade prepares for Karadzic backlash," Financial Times, 27 July 2008; "Radicals threaten Serb leader's life," The Australian, 28 July 2008, p. 15; "Anwalt legt Einspruch gegen Karadzics Auslieferung ein," AP German Worldstream, 26 July 2008; "Death threats to Serbian president over Karadzic arrest," Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan), 26 July 2008. Nada Kolundžija, a prominent member of Tadić's Democratic Party (DS), said that "Radeta's comments could be interpreted as a call for violence, as justification for [Đinđić]'s murder." Some of Tadić's supporters called for legal action to be taken against Radeta."Serbian Democrats want Radicals prosecuted for 'death threats' to president," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 26 July 2008 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 0759 gmt 26 Jul 08).