Dragoljub Stamenković (; 18 September 1954 – 19 April 2025) was a Serbian politician. He served in the National Assembly of Serbia from 1994 to 2007 as a member of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS).
Private career Stamenković was a traffic technician based in Niš.СПИСАК НАРОДНИХ ПОСЛАНИКА , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 May 2021.
Politician During the Milošević years (1993–2000) Stamenković received the lead position on the Radical Party's electoral list for the Niš division in the 1993 Serbian parliamentary election and was elected when the list won four mandates.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (5 Ниш), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021. (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates from successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds would be distributed amongst other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties. Stamenković received an automatic mandate by virtue of his position.)Guide to the Early Election , Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017. He took his seat when the assembly convened in January 1994.Službeni Glasnik (Republike Srbije), Volume 50 Number 11 (25 January 1994), p. 194. Serbian president Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) won the election, and the Radicals served in opposition for the term that followed.
Stamenković was again given the lead position on the SRS's list for Niš in the 1997 parliamentary election and was re-elected when the list again won four mandates.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (23 Ниш), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997. године (Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 21. и 28. септембра и 5. октобра 1997.) године, Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021. The Socialists again won the election, and the Radicals initially continued to serve in opposition. On 24 March 1998, the SPS organized a new coalition government that included the Radicals and the Yugoslav Left (Jugoslovenska Levica, JUL). On 26 May 1998, Stamenković was appointed a deputy speaker of the national assembly.Multi-party National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (1991-2021), National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 December 2021.
Amid growing tensions between Serbia and the United States of America in 1998, Stamenković remarked that if the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was bombed without a United Nations Security Council decision, it would "mark the end of the United Nations and the existing balance of power on the international scene." He added that Russia "had realized" the breakup of Yugoslavia would be a prelude to the breakup of Russia and warned that "despite Russia's economic weakness, it still has huge military and nuclear potential.""Official warns the West of Russia's 'huge nuclear potential," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 9 October 1998 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1213 gmt 7 Oct 98). In early March 1999, shortly before the start of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, he said that "everything should be done to make the lives of those have their military troops deployed in the Republika Srpska and who are behaving as occupiers unbearable." He specifically called for civil resistance and non-cooperation."Official urges Bosnian Serbs to make foreign troops' lives 'unbearable'," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 10 March 1999 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1301 gmt 8 Mar 99). He also called on the Serbian government to "wipe out" those whom he described as separatists, bandits, and terrorists in Kosovo, for the purpose of "protecting all citizens.""Serbian Radicals urge government to 'wipe out rampage' of Kosovo rebels," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European - Political, 17 March 1999 (Source: Excerpts for report by Yugoslav state news agency Tanjug).
In October 1999, after the conclusion of NATO's bombing campaign, Stamenković met with a delegation from Iraq led by Harith Al-Khashali, the Ba'ath Party's committee chair for international relations. Stamenković said that Serbia was "bitter" over recent American bombings of civilians in Iraq and said, "We know that the Iraqi people can handle this and that the evil called the US and the new world order will disappear one day." He also described Serbia under Milošević as "the only free state in Europe, like Iraq [in the Middle East].""Yugoslavia, Iraq united in anti-US resistance: officials," Agence France-Presse, 26 October 1999.
In April 2000, he accused the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS) and Serbian Renewal Movement (Srpski pokret obnove, SPO) of "carrying out synchronized attacks against the Yugoslav Army and police" and of compiling lists of indictees for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)."Serbian opposition accused of collaborating with war crimes tribunal," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 13 April 2000 (Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1405 gmt 10 Apr 00). The following month, he condemned Niš mayor Zoran Živković of the Democratic Party for chairing a city hall meeting wearing an Otpor! t-shirt; Stamenković claimed this was proof of the DS seeking to provoke unrest and come to power by force."Press Digest - Yugoslavia - May 16," Reuters News, 16 May 2000. He supported the Serbian government's decision to take over RTV Studio B during the same time period, accusing the station of having made frequent calls for violence."Press Digest - Yugoslavia - May 18," Reuters News, 18 May 2000.
After the fall of Milošević (2000–2012) Slobodan Milošević was defeated by Vojislav Koštunica of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Demokratska opozicija Srbije, DOS) in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, a watershed event in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics. The Radicals left the Serbian government on 24 October 2000 and returned to opposition, and a new Serbian parliamentary election was called for December.
For the 2000 parliamentary election, the entire country was counted as a single electoral division and all mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions, irrespective of numerical order.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. Stamenković was given the ninth position on the SRS's list and was awarded a mandate for a third term after the party won twenty-three seats.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), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021.PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 29 December 2001. The DOS won a landslide majority in the election and the Radicals again served in opposition. Stamenković's term as deputy speaker ended when the new assembly convened in January 2001.
He was again given the ninth position on the SRS's list in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election and was selected for another mandate 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) Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 2 July 2021."Skupština čeka demokrate", Glas javnosti, 13 January 2004, accessed 29 December 2021. Although the Radicals emerged as the largest party in the assembly after the election, they fell well short of a majority and ultimately continued to serve in opposition. During his last term in parliament, Stamenković was the chair of the transport and communications community and a member of the administrative board and the foreign affairs committee.СПИСАК НАРОДНИХ ПОСЛАНИКА , National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 14 May 2021.
Serbia introduced the direct election of mayors in the 2004 Serbian elections. Stamenković ran as the SRS's candidate in Niš and finished third. He also received the tenth position on the party's list for the City Assembly of Niš and was given a local mandate when the party won twelve out of sixty-one seats.ЛОКАЛНИ ИЗБОРИ 2004 and СКУПШТИНА ГРАДА НИША: 61 ОДБОРНИК, , City of Niš, accessed 23 December 2021.For the rules governing the local elections in 2004, see Law on Local Elections , Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 33/2002; made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 29 May 2021. One third of mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, with the remaining two-thirds being awarded to candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. Stamenković did not automatically receive a city mandate in 2004. As at the republic level, the Radicals served in opposition in the city."Kad gradonačelnik ostane bez vlasti", Politika, 29 June 2007, accessed 28 December 2021.
Stamenković was not a candidate in the 2007 Serbian parliamentary election and his term in the national assembly came to an end that year. Serbia ended the direct election of mayors in the 2008 local elections; Stamenković appeared on the SRS's list and was given another mandate when it won eighteen seats.Lokalni Izbori 2008; Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; p. 133.Скупштина града, , City of Niš, accessed 11 December 2021. This source implies that Stamenković appeared in the second position on the SRS list.For the 2008 local elections, all mandates were assigned to candidates on successful lists at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. See Law on Local Elections (2007) , Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 129/2007); made available via LegislationOnline, accessed 29 May 2021. Although the Radicals technically won a plurality victory in the assembly vote, the DS and SPS formed a coalition government in the city and the SRS was yet again in opposition.