Dobrivoje Budimirović
Dobrivoje Budimirović (), commonly known as Bidža, is a retired politician in Serbia. He was the mayor of Svilajnac for most of the period from 1989 to 2008 and also served in the Serbian and Yugoslavian parliaments. For many years a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS), he later started his own political movement and is now a member of the Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska napredna stranka, SNS). Early life and career Budimirović was born in the village of Lukovica near Svilajnac, in what was then the People's Republic of Serbia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. He graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture in Belgrade and later worked in a co-operative and for the company Agroeksport. Beginning in 1980, he served for a number of years as director of the Agricultural School. In 2013, Budimirović took part in a reality television show called Farmers. The following year, his home was seriously damaged in the 2014 Southeast Europe floods. In 2020, it was reported that he was cultivating one-and-a-half hectares of farmland, where he grew wheat, corn, and alfalfa, and was still busy with a variety of domestic and international projects. He once saved his leg from gangrene by amputating an infected toe with vineyard shears. Politician The Miloševic Years (1987–2000) Budimirović was a personal associate of Slobodan Milošević during the latter's political ascension in Serbia and has remained a defender of Milošević's political legacy. He has said that he persuaded Milošević to marry Mirjana Marković (of whom he was significantly less fond) in a church ceremony, in order to build popular support for their union. When Slobodan Milošević was chosen as president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in July 1997, Budimirović and fellow Socialist parliamentarian Radovan Radović sang a duet in praise of Milošević in the national assembly, with the words, "Slobodane, Slobodane ti si ko komunista, volimo te, volimo te ko Isusa Hrista." (English: "Slobodan, Slobodan, you are a communist. We love you, we love you like Jesus Christ.") Mayor of Svilajnac (1989–2000) Budimorović first became mayor of Svilajnac following the 1989 Serbian local elections, the last to be held when Serbia was still a one-party socialist state. The following year, multi-party democracy was re-introduced and Budimirović became a member of Milošević's SPS. He continued in office as mayor after the May 1992, December 1992, and 1996 Serbian local elections. In this role, he was a colourful and often bombastic figure, and was derided in some circles as a crude political boss. He has described his mayoralty as a time of unprecedented growth for the community, pointing to the construction of the maternity hospital and the gasification of the town as being among his successes. When sanctions were imposed against Yugoslavia in the context of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, Budimirović responded by legalizing the sale of smuggled cigarettes in the municipality. Officials from Belgrade who had arrived to confiscate the contraband cigarettes were required to return them. Parliamentarian (1990–2001)