Aleksandar Antic remains president of SPS Belgrade branch

BELGRADE - Serbia's Energy Minister Aleksandar Antic has been re-elected as president of the Belgrade branch of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).

At the ninth electoral conference of the branch, held on Sunday, the new SPS city board was elected as well, said a statement released by the party, a minority partner in Serbia's ruling coalition.

Antic's candidacy for SPS deputy president was backed by all of the party's 16 organisations in the city, reporters were told before the electoral conference.

At the December 14 congress, the Socialists will reaffirm the undisputed leadership of Ivica Dacic, who will then elect the party leadership - including the deputy presidents - at the SPS Main Board session, SPS MP Djordje Milicevic told Tanjug earlier on.

SPS leader Ivica Dacic announced on Sunday that the party is to be reformed.

"I do not want to promise a policy that we cannot implement, as we are not utopist Socialists. Those who think that the SPS is a historical museum must withdraw," Dacic said at the electoral conference of the party's Belgrade branch.

He called on the membership to embark bravely on the party reform, but said that it does not mean that they need to criticise the past, but make a clear stand about the SPS policy.

Photo Tanjug, S. Radovanovic