Slobodanka Gruden (Serbian Cyrillic: Слободанка Груден; born 2 July 1940) is a medical doctor, academic, and former politician in Serbia. She was the first female mayor of Belgrade, serving in the role from 1992 to 1994. During her time in office, Gruden was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS).
Early life and academic career
Gruden was born in Belgrade, in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The years of World War II were difficult for her family; both of her parents were held in captivity during the conflict. An active member of the Red Cross from a young age, Gruden graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Medicine in 1966, completed her specialization in 1976, and became primarius in 1984.
Politician
Gruden joined the League of Communists of Serbia as a student and in this context became a friend of Slobodan Milošević, the future Serbian president. She served on the municipal committee of the League of Communists in Vračar and was later the president of the socio-political council in the municipality of Zemun. In 1986, she became a member of presidency of the League of Communists in Belgrade.
Serbia ceased to be a one-party socialist state in 1990, and the League of Communists was transformed into the SPS. Gruden joined the new party and became a member of its main board. She was elected to the City Assembly of Belgrade for Zemun's third division in the May 1992 Serbian local elections. Following the election, she was chosen as president of the assembly, a position that was at the time equivalent to mayor. She was re-elected in the December 1992 local elections and confirmed for another term as mayor afterward.
Gruden became mayor of Belgrade during the time of the Croatian War and the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Serbia was under an embargo in this period; there was a shortage of medical supplies, stores were often short of goods, and the underground economy was flourishing. As mayor, she worked to ensure the city remained functional, and she later credited the city's strong relationship with Bucharest for ensuring regular supplies of fuel. Gruden has said that one of her most important accomplishments in office was arranging for Serb refugee children from Croatia and Bosnia and Hercegovina to continue their education in Athens, Greece. She also returned the Spasovdan ceremony to Belgrade after an absence of forty-five years.
Her political downfall came after she publicly responded to criticism of her job performance by Milošević's wife Mirjana Marković. Gruden later contended that she lost the support of both Milošević and Marković after persuading Vuk Drašković, the leader of the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement (Srpski pokrat obnove, SPO) party, to end a hunger strike in 1993. It became impossible for her to continue as mayor, and she resigned on 23 June 1994, receiving a round of applause from the opposition delegates in assembly.
After leaving political office, Gruden returned to working as a doctor; during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, she was deputy director and head of the blood transfusion service at Zemun's central clinic. Following Milošević's defeat in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election, she was part of a group of SPS members that called on him to resign as leader and for the party to return to its core values.
References
- Ivan Radojičić, "Prva žena gradonačelnik Beograda: Slobodanka Gruden, lekarka koja je prestonicu održala na transfuziji", 011info.com, accessed 27 August 2021.
- Ivan Radojičić, "Prva žena gradonačelnik Beograda: Slobodanka Gruden, lekarka koja je prestonicu održala na transfuziji", 011info.com, accessed 27 August 2021.
- Službeni List (Grada Beograda), 17 July 1992, p. 787.
- Službeni List (Grada Beograda), 12 February 1993, p. 39.
- "Bila je prva žena na čelu prestonice: Kako je Slobodanka Gruden nagovorila Miloševića da vrati Spasovdan Beogradu", Novosti, 20 June 2020, accessed 27 August 2021.
- M.T. Kovačević, "Slobodanka Gruden: Beograd bio na ivici kolapsa", 18 October 2014, accessed 27 August 2021.
- "Portraits From Mirjana Markovic's Diary", Vreme 10 October 1994, accessed 27 August 2021.
- "Patrijarh Pavle mi rekao da sam mudrija od njega, Vuka sam ubedila da prekine štrajk glađu: Slobodanka Gruden o vremenu kada je bila prva žena - gradonačelnik Beograda", Novosti, 21 June 2020, accessed 27 August 2021.
- "No wounded from NATO airstrikes near Belgrade, health officials say," Agence France-Presse, 28 March 1999.
- "Former allies blame Milosevic for Socialist Party 'crisis," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Service: Central Europe & Balkans, 20 October 2000 (Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1415 gmt 17 Oct 00).
