Svetozar Marovic

President of Serbia-Montenegro

(Montenegrin Parliament Website, BBC Country Profile, SEE Online; Reuters, BBC, BETA - 07/03/03)

Montenegrin lawyer Svetozar Marovic was elected the first president of the new union of Serbia-Montenegro on 7 March 2003, less than a month after the former Yugoslav federation was abolished. Marovic will also chair the union's joint five-member council of ministers.

Marovic assumed his post at a time when both Serbia and Montenegro were without elected presidents and less than a week before a state of emergency was imposed in Serbia following the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on 12 March.

Marovic was born on 31 March 1955 in the town of Kotor. He is a graduate of Podgorica's Law School. He is co-founder and deputy chairman of the Montenegrin pro-independence Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).

Marovic was first elected a member of Montenegro's Parliament in 1990. He was elected its speaker three times between 1994 and 2001, and also headed the assembly's foreign affairs commission. He has served as secretary general and vice president, and as a federal and Montenegrin MP for the DPS.

In his presidential inauguration speech on 7 March 2003, Marovic described the agreement that led to the creation of the new loose union as "the first democratic agreement between Serbia and Montenegro ever". The president said the main focus of his work in the three years before the two republics can opt out of the union would be on improving the living standards of the Serbian-Montenegrin people. Marovic also pledged co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Besides being an active politician, the Serbia-Montenegro president has written for a number of dailies, weeklies and magazines, and has been the initiator of various cultural events in the city of Budva.

Svetozar Marovic is married and has two children.