This rebellious intellect was born in 1952 in Bosanski Samac, a town of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He criticized Communism and led protests against Tito’s government which resulted in his jail time in Slovenia in his twenties. After the release, he left Serbia to continue his Philosophy study in Germany. Upon returning to Yugoslavia, he taught university courses and found the Democrat Party with other Serbian dissidents.

The pro-Western, idealistic and pragmatic, at the time, was seen as Serbia’s only bright hope who could reform the paralyzed economy and bring Serbia closer to Europe. Zoran’s dream for a better Serbia was cut short in 2003 when he was gunned down on his way to work; the bullet pierced his heart and killed him almost instantly.

His closest ally, Zoran Zivkovic, the new PM began a witch-hunt for the assassination’s killers and conspirators. However people saw his zealous determination to clean up a mafia infested state as an abuse of power. He soon lost popularity and support from coalition parties, then later his PM job. Despite being a good leader, Zoran Zikovic could never hold a candle to his predecessor, Zoran Djindjic, who:

He was someone who could have seen the reforms through much better than I ever could. He got people to cooperate. The coalition included fifteen parties. Zoran excelled when it came to patting others on the back, talking with everyone, listening to other points of view. I never had his patience. And eventually we became utterly paralyzed. [source]

Like his and his successor’s (Zoran Zivkovic) short term leading Serbia, Zoran Djindjic’s reform program vanished when Serbian fell back to the conservatism and nationalism.