Smiljko Kostić (; born 22 February 1945) is a retired politician and administrator in Serbia. From 1984 to 1998, he was the general manager of the tobacco firm Duvanska industrija Niš (DIN) in Niš. He served in the National Assembly of Serbia from 1991 to 1993 and was the mayor of mayor of Niš from 2004 to 2008. A member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) for most of the 1990s, he later fell out of favour with Slobodan Milošević's administration, left the party, and was elected mayor in 2004 with an endorsement from New Serbia (Nova Srbija, NS).
Early life and career Kostić was born in Žitorađa in southern Serbia in the closing phases of World War II, shortly before the establishment of the People's Republic of Serbia within the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He was raised in the community and graduated from the University of Niš's Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Kostić began working at DIN in 1971, initially as a warehouse employee and later as a workshop manager and chief engineer. In 1984, he was promoted to general manager. He resisted calls for the company's privatization in the 1990s.Smiljko Kostić, Južne vesti, 15 May 2017, accessed 28 December 2021.
Politician and administrator Parliamentarian and DIN general manager (1990–98) Kostić was elected to the national assembly for Niš's third division in the 1990 Serbian parliamentary election. The SPS won a majority government, and Kostić served for the next two years as a government supporter. He was not a candidate in the 1992 parliamentary election.
In December 1991, Kostić announced that DIN had signed a forty-five million dollar contract with the Russian cigarette company Prodintorg, in which DIN agreed to modernize existing Russian facilities and construct new factories."DIN to supply cigarettes to Prodintorg of USSR in 1992," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 19 December 1991 (Source: Tanjug in English 1111 gmt 10 Dec 91). During the sanctions against Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Kostić expanded the construction of new DIN plants in Serbia."Cigarette producer investing in new factory," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 4 January 1996 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1224 gmt 31 Dec 95). In May 1994, he said that the smuggling of cigarettes into Serbia was a serious threat to domestic producers, and at the end of 1997 he complained that smuggling had effectively killed the industry."Black Market Prices Holding Steady," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 18 May 1995 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1152 gmt 16 May 95)."Press Digest - Yugoslavia - December 30," Reuters News, 30 December 1997.
Arrest and acquittal (1998–2003) Kostić was arrested on 9 February 1998 on suspicion of having embezzled several million dinars. It was widely believed that the charges against him were politically motivated. Some rumours suggested that the arrest was prompted by a clash with Slobodan Milošević's son Marko and by his own links with business interests close to Montenegrin president Milo Đukanović; another rumour suggested that Kostić was removed from office to facilitate the privatization of DIN. Zoran Živković, at the time the mayor of Niš, said, "The arrest of Smiljko Kostić is a purely political act. He was unable to do anything without the knowledge of Slobodan Milošević."Robert Thomas, Serbia Under Miloševic: Politics in the 1990s, (London: Hurst & Company), 1999, p. 396. Following Kostić's arrest, pro-government media alleged that he had sold cigarettes in the country's illegal economy. In November 1999, a court in Niš convicted him of three charges and sentenced him to a total of six years in prison."Former Milosevic ally jailed for 'abuse of power'," Agence France-Presse, 16 November 1999. In November 2000, after the fall of the Milošević regime, he was released pending an appeal."SMILJKA KOSTICA DOCEKALI GRADJANI ZITORADJE", B92, 9 November 2000, accessed 28 December 2021.
The Supreme Court of Serbia acquitted Kostić of the main charges against him in 2003 while upholding the lesser charge of "unscrupulous work in the economy," which carried a two-year sentence. As he had already served this time, he was not required to return to prison."Pare u džaku, pravda u budžaku", Glas javnosti, 24 June 2002, accessed 28 December 2021."Pravda spora ali dostižna", Glas javnosti 8 September 2003, accessed 28 December 2021.
Mayor of Niš (2004–08) Serbia introduced the direct election of mayors for the 2004 local elections, and Kostić was elected mayor of Niš as the nominee of New Serbia (although, as a self-described leftist, he was not actually a member of the right-wing and monarchist party at the time). He defeated incumbent Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS) mayor Goran Ćirić by a significant margin in the second round of voting; many commentators observed that his victory was due in large part to a local split in the DS ranks.Zoran Kosanović, "Zdravlje, pušenje i bakšiš", Vreme, 7 October 2004, accessed 28 December 2021. New Serbia won only four out of sixty-one seats in the City Assembly of Niš, and Kostić did not initially have a working majority; in December 2004, his nominees for city council (i.e., the executive branch of the city government) were defeated by the assembly."Demokrate opet na tronu", Glas javnosti, 8 December 2004, accessed 20 December 2021. The DS briefly formed an assembly majority with the Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska stranka Srbije, DSS) and G17 Plus, but this fell apart in early 2005."DS odlazi s vlasti u Nišu", B92, 17 February 2005, accessed 28 December 2021. Eventually, Kostić and New Serbia were able to form a working majority with the DSS, G17 Plus, the SPS, and the Serbian Renewal Movement (Srpski pokret obnove, SPO)."Kad gradonačelnik ostane bez vlasti", Politika, 29 June 2007, accessed 28 December 2021.
In early 2005, Kostić organized a reception in support of Vladimir Lazarević, before the latter's departure for The Hague to face war crimes charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)."Nov proizvod: Vlast-Crkva-Hag", B92, 2 February 2005, accessed 28 December 2021. He later donated a car for use by a member of Lazarević's family."'Skroman' poklon za sve muke", B92, 13 March 2005, accessed 28 December 2021. These actions prompted a diplomatic incident later in the year, when United Kingdom ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro David Gowan described the gift as an abuse of office, and both he and the American ambassador refused to meet with Kostić."UK ambassador shuns Serbian mayor for giving gifts to Hague inductee's family," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 11 June 2005 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1243 gmt 10 Jun 05). New Serbia leader Velimir Ilić described the matter as a misunderstanding that had been blown out of proportion by media coverage."Refusal of US, UK envoys to meet mayor 'misunderstanding' - Serbian minister," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 21 June 2005 (Source: Radio B92 text web site, Belgrade, in English 1716 gmt 21 Jun 05).
In September 2005, Kostić announced that Russia's Gazprom was interested in financing a natural gas pipeline in southern Serbia and a new energy plant in Niš as part of a proposed deal between the two countries. He urged the Serbian government to approve the arrangement."Russia's Gazprom said interested in gasification of southern Serbia," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 13 September 2005 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbia 1105 gmt 13 Sep 05). The following year, he met with Skopje mayor Trifun Kostovski and Sofia mayor Boyko Borisov on increasing ties between the cities."Macedonia: Mayors of Skopje, Sofia, Nis discuss regional cooperation," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 9 May 2006 (Source: Makfax news agency, Skopje, in English 1433 gmt 9 May 06).
Kostić survived a recall election initiated by the DS in December 2005, with about sixty per cent of eligible voters opposing his removal from office."Kostić ostaje gradonačelnik Niša", B92, 4 December 2005, accessed 28 December 2021. The following year, he made the unilateral decision of ending the city's financial support to the local daily Niške Narodne Novine, due to his dissatisfaction with its coverage of local politics and its decision to remove the city's coat of arms from its front page."Serbian mayor cuts budget funding for local daily, dissatisfied with reporting," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 12 July 2006 (Source: RTS 1 TV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1730 gmt 11 Jul 06).
While Kostić was not a member of New Serbia at the time of his election as mayor, media reports indicate that he later joined the party.See for instance "Nova Srbija: trpimo politički progon", Južne vesti, 1 October 2010, accessed 28 December 2021. In this article, the president of New Serbia's city board in Niš describes Kostić as a member. New Serbia contested the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election in an alliance with the DSS, and Kostić was given the 125th position out of 250 on their combined electoral list.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. јануара и 8. фебрауара 2007. године, ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (5 Демократска странка Србије - Нова Србија - др Војислав Коштуница), Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 28 December 2021. The list won forty-seven seats, and he was not subsequently included in New Serbia's parliamentary delegation."Poslaničke liste bez brojnih poznatih imena", Politika, 13 February 2007, accessed 28 December 2021. (From 2000 to 2011, all parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be distributed out of numerical order. Kostić's list position had no specific bearing on his chances of election.)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 28 February 2017.
In June 2007, Kostić and New Serbia lost the support of their coalition partners in the Niš city assembly, which approved measures to significantly reduce the powers of the mayor's office. It was generally accepted during this time that Niš's political divisions had led to a form of administrative paralysis, which caused the city to fall behind economically.
Serbia abolished the direct election of mayors for the 2008 local elections; mayors were instead to be chosen by assembly members elected under proportional representation. New Serbia contested the election in an alliance with the DSS, which vetoed Kostić's inclusion on their list. Kostić announced his retirement from politics, and his term in office ended in July 2008."Mnogo pretendenata na Kostićevu fotelju", Politika, 30 March 2008, accessed 28 December 2021.
Since 2012 Kostić visited and gave his support to two hunger strikers from the Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska napredna stranka, SNS) in Niš in April 2011."Smiljko Kostić posetio štrajkače u SNS-u", Južne vesti 18 April 2011, accessed 28 December 2021. In October 2021, he expressed interest in building a tobacco factory in Leskovac."Smiljko Kostić namerava da gradi fabriku duvana u Leskovcu", Jugmedia, 28 October 2021, accessed 28 December 2021.