City and municipal politics from 2000 to 2008

The Democratic Party of Serbia contested the 2000 Serbian local elections as part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's government. The DOS won majority victories in Belgrade and most of its constituent municipalities during this cycle. In Zemun, the coalition won sixty-one out of seventy seats.^[3]

Mladenović was one of the DOS candidates elected to the Zemun municipal assembly in 2000 and was chosen as one of its vice-presidents (i.e., deputy speakers, a position then equivalent to deputy mayor) when the body convened in October. For the next four years, he held responsibility for sports and youth, refugees and social issues, and relations with religious communities. ^[4]

Mladenović appeared in the second position on the DSS's electoral list for the City Assembly of Belgrade in the 2004 local elections and was elected when the list won thirteen mandates.^[5][6][7][8] The Democratic Party (DS) won the election and afterward formed a coalition government with the DSS and G17 Plus. Mladenović was appointed to city council (i.e., the executive branch of municipal government) with responsibility for sports and youth and remained in this role for the next four years.^[9][10][11]

He also received the second position on the DSS's electoral list in Zemun in 2004 and was re-elected to the municipal assembly when the list won seven seats.^[12][13][14] The far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS) won the election and formed a coalition government with the Strength of Serbia Movement (PSS), and the DSS served in opposition.^[15]

DSS spokesperson in the first Koštunica ministry

Mladenović appeared in the fifty-seventh position (out of 250) on the DSS's electoral list in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election.^[16] The list won fifty-three mandates, and he was not included in his party's assembly delegation.^[17] (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. Mladenović could have been given a mandate despite his comparatively low position on the list, but he was not.)^[18] He was appointed as the party's media spokesperson in 2004.^[19] The DSS became the dominant party in Serbia's coalition government after the election, and party leader Vojislav Koštunica served as prime minister.

After the 2004 Kosovo assembly election, which was largely boycotted by Serbs in the disputed region due to a wave of violence against the community earlier in the year, Mladenović said that the Serbian government would continue to negotiate its own plan for resolving the status of the territory.^[20] In April 2005, he rejected a plan by the International Commission on the Balkans for the gradual independence of Kosovo.^[21]

In early 2005, he said that Sreten Lukić would surrender voluntarily to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague to face charges of war crimes. He added that the DSS supported the principle of voluntary surrender for ICTY indictees and opposed a policy of arrests.^[22][23]

Mladenović criticized the European Union's pressure tactics on Serbia to surrender prominent war crimes suspects such as Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, both of whose whereabouts were unknown at the time. He said in June 2006, "What will [additional conditions on Serbia's bid for European Union membership] bring if Mladić is dead? What if he has left the country?"^[24] This notwithstanding, he later said that Serbia was co-operating with the ICTY in hunting for Mladić and other suspects.^[25] He rejected suggestions that Serbia's security forces needed to be "purged" to facilitate the extradition of Mladić and others, saying that "a serious country would never allow anyone from outside to dictate the country's most important positions. That would mean that we are not a country, but a colony."^[26]

Serbia's national assembly observed a moment of silence for all victims of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars on 11 July 2005, and critics noted that the ceremony did not include specific reference to the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Mladenović said, "Serbia has an interest in exposing and condemning all war crimes in the history of the former Yugoslavia, in which the Serbian people were the biggest victims."^[27]

In August 2006, United Nations Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari was quoted as saying that Serbs were culpable as a people for crimes committed in the Kosovo War. Mladenović described this statement as "scandalous, shameful, and racist."^[28] In November of the same year, he asked for Ahtisaari's resignation.^[29] He supported the protests of Kosovo Serbs against Ahtisaari's plan for the final resolution of the status of Kosovo in February 2007.^[30] The following month, he described a revised version of Ahtisaari's plan as "worse than the previous one" in that it fully corresponded "with the stance of the Albanian separatists."^[31][32]

DSS spokesperson in the second Koštunica ministry

The 2007 Serbian parliamentary election did not produce a clear winner, and the DS, DSS, and G17 Plus ultimately formed an unstable coalition government with Vojislav Koštunica continuing as prime minister. Mladenović, who provided regular media updates during the negotiations for a new government,^[33] remained as the DSS's media spokesperson, although from July 2007 he shared this responsibility with Branislav Ristivojević.^[34]

In September 2007, Mladenović said that Serbian Army forces would not be deployed to international missions in either Afghanistan or Iraq.^[35] In November, he said that a new European Union (EU) mission to Kosovo and Metohija would be unacceptable for Serbia prior to a multilateral settlement on the status of the region.^[36]

The DSS offered to support DS incumbent Boris Tadić in the second round of the 2008 Serbian presidential election if Tadić agreed to abandon Serbia's Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union in the event the EU sent a new mission to Kosovo. Tadić rejected the offer, and the DSS remained neutral in the runoff vote between Tadić and SRS candidate Tomislav Nikolić. Mladenović blamed Tadić and the DS for this situation, stressing that the DSS proposal was a legitimate offer and not a form of blackmail.^[37] Tadić ultimately won a narrow victory in the runoff.

Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in 2008 and the subsequent recognition of the Republic of Kosovo by many European Union countries created a crisis for the DSS–DS government. Mladenović said that Serbia's "official policy thus far has been that Kosovo is Serbia and that we will join the EU with Kosovo as a constituent part" and called for a referendum on whether the country was willing to continue on the European Union path "with or without Kosovo."^[38] The crisis ultimately led to the breakdown of the coalition government and to an early parliamentary election in May 2008. The DSS contested the election in a partnership with New Serbia (NS), and Mladenović received the sixty-second position on their combined list.^[39]

Boris Tadić announced during the 2008 parliamentary campaign that he would sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU. Mladenović responded, "his signature is not the signature of Serbia. He is in fact putting a seal of Judas on his party coalition to the [agreement]."^[40]

Politician and DSS spokesperson from 2008 to 2010

The 2008 parliamentary election failed to produce a clear winner. The DSS–NS alliance won thirty seats, and Mladenović said that it would not negotiate with pro-EU parties for a new government.^[41] The DSS came close to forming a new administration with the SRS and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), and Mladenović again provided regular updates on negotiations between the parties.^[42] The talks between the parties ultimately failed, and the Socialists instead entered a coalition government with the For a European Serbia (ZES) alliance led by the DS. The DSS moved into opposition. Mladenović was not included in his party's assembly delegation.^[43]

Mladenović was given the thirteenth position on the DSS–NS list for Belgrade in the 2008 local elections, which were held concurrently with the parliamentary vote. He received a new mandate when the list won twelve seats.^[44][45][46] Mirroring developments at the republic level, the DSS held talks with the Radicals and Socialists for a new municipal government, and Mladenović indicated that the DSS was willing to endorse the SRS's Aleksandar Vučić for mayor.^[47] Mladenović, Vučić, and Milan Krkobabić (representing the Socialist alliance) announced an agreement for a new municipal government on 28 May 2008, and rumours circulated that Mladenović would become deputy mayor.^[48] The deal fell apart when the DS and Socialists formed a coalition at the republic level, and the DS–SPS alliance soon came to power in Belgrade as well. The DSS moved into opposition, and Mladenović led its group in the city assembly.^[49] His term on city council formally ended on 19 August 2008.^[50]

Mladenović also led the DSS–NS list in Zemun in 2008. The list won five seats, though on this occasion he did not take a seat in the municipal assembly.^[51][52]

In July 2008, Mladenović announced that the DSS would support a rally organized by the Radical Party against the recent arrest of Radovan Karadžić.^[53][54] The following month, he said that Russia's recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was a reaction to the recognition of Kosovo's independence by the western powers.^[55]

Mladenović announced a new co-operation agreement with the DSS, New Serbia, and Maja Gojković's People's Party (NP) in November 2008, saying that the parties would fight for "enduring democratic principles and national values."^[56] In June 2009, he said that the DSS was prepared to align itself with the newly established Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) to form new administrations in the Belgrade municipalities of Zemun and Voždovac.^[57] He appears to have stood down as a DSS media spokesperson in early 2010.

After 2010

Serbia's electoral system was reformed in 2011, such that all mandates were awarded in numerical order to candidates on successful lists. Mladenović received the forty-fourth position on the DSS's electoral list in the 2012 Serbian parliamentary election and was not elected when the list won twenty-one mandates.^[58] He was also given the second position on the DSS's list in the concurrent 2012 Belgrade city election and was re-elected to the city assembly when the list won ten mandates.^[59][60]

The DS and Socialists initially maintained their coalition agreement in Belgrade after the 2012 election, and the DSS again served in opposition. In late 2013, the party participated in a key vote of non-confidence that forced the resignation of mayor Dragan Đilas.^[61] The Serbian government dissolved the Belgrade assembly in November 2013 pending new elections, and Mladenović was appointed as the DSS's representative on an interim governing council.^[62]

Mladenović again received the second position on the DSS list in the 2014 city assembly election and was re-elected when the list won nine mandates.^[63][64] The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its allies won a majority victory with sixty-three seats out of 110 and afterward formed a coalition government that included the DSS. Mladenović became Belgrade's deputy mayor with SNS support in April 2014.^[65][66]

Mladenović also received the tenth position on the DSS's list in the 2014 Serbian parliamentary election, which was held concurrently with the Belgrade vote. The party failed to cross the electoral threshold for assembly representation.^[67]