Radivoje Lazarević

Radivoje Lazarević (; born 18 January 1962) is a Serbian former politician and diplomat. He was briefly a member of the Serbian parliament in 2001, served as ambassador to Brazil from 2001 to 2005, and led Liberals of Serbia (LS), previously known as New Democracy (ND), from 2005 to 2007.

Early life and career Lazarević was born in the village of Oglađenovac in Valjevo, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He became active as an amateur radio operator in high school and has won several awards in the field, including at an international level.Borba, 21 December 1978, p. 8.Borba, 12 January 1979, p. 9.Borba, 30 June 1986, p. 16.Borba, 9 December 1989, p. 19. In May 1981, while serving as a cadet-corporal, he won first place in a Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) radio-telegraph competition for soldiers.Borba, 26 May 1981, p. 12.

He is a graduate of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences and later earned a master's degree in the same discipline.Руководство Либерала Србије, , Liberals of Serbia, 18 January 1962, accessed 20 June 2026."Promena spremana 15 godina," , 4 October 2005, accessed 22 June 2026.

Politician Early years Lazarević was a delegate to the republican conference of the Socialist Youth Union of Serbia in the late 1980s.Borba, 21 October 1988, p. 6. In July 1990, he became a member of the inaugural presidential board of the successor Social Democratic Youth Alliance of Serbia — New Democracy. In a speech to assembled delegates at the new party's formation, he said that the "youth party" would fight for parliamentary government, civil liberal democracy, and a society based on social and political justice.Borba, 11 July 1990, p. 5. A month after its formation, the party changed its name to New Democracy – Movement for Serbia.

During the 1990s, Serbian political life was dominated by the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milošević, leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). Lazarević ran as a New Democracy candidate for New Belgrade's second division in the 1990 Serbian parliamentary election and was defeated in the first round of voting; the winning candidate was high-profile Socialist Bogdan Trifunović. New Democracy subsequently joined the Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS) opposition coalition, which was led by the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO).

Prior to the 1992 parliamentary election, Serbia adopted a system of proportional representation in which one-third of the national assembly mandates were assigned to candidates on successful electoral lists in numerical order, with the remaining two-thirds assigned to other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions.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. Lazarević, who was by this time a vice president of New Democracy,Borba, 7 December 1992, p. 27. appeared in the twenty-sixth position on the DEPOS list for Belgrade.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (1 Београд), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024. The list won fifteen seats, and he did not receive a mandate.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године – РЕЗУЛТАТИ ИЗБОРА (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 20. и 27. децембра 1992. године и 3. јануара 1993. године), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 February 2024.Službeni Glasnik (Republike Srbije), Volume 49 Number 7 (25 January 1993), pp. 193–194. In January 1993, he represented New Democracy in all-party talks with Federal Republic of Yugoslavia president Dobrica Ćosić on the formation of a new federal government.Borba, 9 January 1993, p. 3.

Alliance with the Socialist Party The Socialist Party won 123 out of 250 seats in the 1993 Serbian parliamentary election and achieved a parliamentary majority in February 1994 through a coalition government with New Democracy, which had six seats. New Democracy leader Dušan Mihajlović justified the alliance on the grounds that the party could more effectively influence Serbian politics in government than in opposition.Robert Thomas, Serbia Under Miloševic: Politics in the 1990s, (London: Hurst & Company), 1999, pp. 191-192.

Lazarević became president of New Democracy's executive board in March 1994.Borba, 14 March 2004, p. 5. He supported resolution of the ongoing wars in Croatia and Bosnia by peaceful, diplomatic means, including direct negotiations between the warring parties.Borba, 17 June 1994, p. 4.Borba, 10 March 1995, p. 6. In May 1995, he argued that the international community should change its view that Serbs alone were responsible for the conflicts and lift ongoing sanctions against Yugoslavia.Borba, 19 May 1995, p. 6. Just before the start of Croatia's Operation Storm in August 1995, he called on the international community to stop Croatian president Franjo Tuđman's "aggressive policy," which he described as "currently the biggest obstacle to peace in those areas."Borba, 4 August 1995, p. 7.

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began bombing the Republika Srpska (RS) later in August 1995, Lazarević said, "Although the international community used a problematic occasion for this attack, we still believe that a large part of the blame lies with the RS leadership."Borba, 1 September 1995, p. 6. He subsequently welcomed the Dayton Agreement to end the Bosnian conflict.Borba, 22 November 1995, p. 7.

Lazarević was again chosen as a New Democracy vice president in March 1997.Borba, 11 March 1997, p. 2. In June of the same year, he took part in multi-party discussions organized by the Serbian government on the financing of political parties.Borba, 25 June 1997, p. 3.Borba, 26 June 1997, p. 10. During the 1997 Serbian parliamentary election (in which he was not a candidate), he called for the normalization of relations with all surrounding countries and for Yugoslavia to join the Partnership for Peace.Borba, 27 August 1997, p. 2.Borba, 17 September 1997, p. 3.

Dušan Mihajlović submitted his resignation as New Democracy leader in late October 1997, and Lazarević briefly served as the party's acting president; on 8 November 1997, the party presidency reaffirmed its confidence in Mihajlović.Borba, 27 October 1997, pp. 1–2. In February 1998, Lazarević represented New Democracy in talks with incoming Serbian prime minister Mirko Marjanović on the formation of a new republican government.Borba, 27 February 1998, p. 7. New Democracy was not included in the new government and later ended its alliance with the Socialists.

DOS representative and diplomat In 2000, New Democracy joined the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's continued rule. DOS candidate Vojislav Koštunica defeated Milošević in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, and Milošević fell from power on 5 October 2000, a watershed moment in Serbian politics. Serbia's government also fell after Milošević's defeat, and a new republican parliamentary election was called for December 2000.

Prior to the December 2000 vote, Serbia's electoral laws were changed so that the entire country became a single "at-large" electoral division and all parliamentary 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 6 June 2021. Lazarević was New Democracy's lead candidate in the election, appearing in the fifth position on the DOS list.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (4 Демократска опозиција Србије – др Војислав Коштуница (Демократска странка, Демократска странка Србије, Социјалдемократија, Грађански савез Србије, Демохришћанска странка Србије, Нова Србија, Покрет за демократску Србију, Лига социјалдемократа Војводине, Реформска демократска странка Војводине, Коалиција Војводина, Савез војвођанских Мађара, Демократска алтернатива, Демократски центар, Нова демократија, Социјалдемократска унија, Санxачка демократска партија, Лига за Шумадију, Српски покрет отпора – Демократски покрет), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. The DOS won a landslide victory with 176 and 250 seats, and he was awarded an assembly mandate, taking his seat when the new parliament convened in January 2001.PRVA KONSTITUTIVNA SEDNICA, 22.01.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, 22 January 2001, accessed 16 May 2026.

Lazarević's term in the national assembly was ultimately brief. He officially resigned his seat on 10 May 2001,DRUGA SEDNICA, PRVOG REDOVNOG ZASEDANjA, 10.05.2001., Otvoreni Parlament, 10 May 2001, accessed 22 June 2026. having been appointed as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's ambassador to Brazil. On 13 June 2001, he presented his credentials to Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso.Borba, 14 June 2001, p. 3. He continued to serve as ambassador when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was restructured as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003; his term ended in April 2005.Borba, 20 April 2005, p. 1. Lazarević later said that he needed to learn tennis, golf, and bridge to be accepted as a member of the diplomatic corps."'Ovde sam kao svoja na svome! Sebe za dvadeset godina vidim kao ministra za rad i socijalna pitanja'," Vreme, 14 December 2005, accessed 22 June 2026. The quotation in the article title is not from Lazarević.

New Democracy changed its name to Liberals of Serbia in 2003 and contested that year's Serbian parliamentary election on its own. Lazarević appeared in the symbolic next-to-last position (i.e., 248th) on the party's electoral list.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (13. ЛИБЕРАЛИ СРБИЈЕ - ДУШАН МИХАЈЛОВИЋ), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. The list did not cross the electoral threshold for assembly representation.

Liberals of Serbia leader Lazarević succeeded Dušan Mihajlović as LS leader in early October 2005. Mihajlović said that he had been planning to resign in favour of Lazarević for some time but could not do so while the latter was still serving as ambassador to Brazil. By the time Lazarević became party leader, Liberals of Serbia had become a fairly marginal force within Serbian politics."Promena spremana 15 godina," , 4 October 2005, accessed 22 June 2026.