Protić prime minister of the Kingdom of SCS

On 20 December 1918 (7 December by the Julian calendar, which was still in use in Serbia at the time) Regent Alexander appointed the first government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The prime minister was Stojan Protić and not, as had been expected, Nikola Pašić. That day Pašić, who had headed the Serbian government without a break since 1912, ceased to be prime minister. The British chronology of the war records Pašić’s resignation under 20 December, and Protić’s appointment only under 29 December. Serbian and Croatian studies agree, however, that Protić’s government was formed on 20 December, so we describe both events together.

Pašić had been the most important figure in Serbian politics for more than thirty years. The leader of the Radical Party had headed the government before, among other times in 1904–1905, 1906–1908 and 1909–1911, and from the autumn of 1912 he led Serbia through the Balkan Wars, the July Crisis of 1914, defeat and exile on Corfu, and on to victory. After the proclamation of the kingdom on 1 December he was regarded as the de facto prime minister of the new state. From 11 December the leaders of the main parties discussed the first joint government and, according to historians, agreed that Pašić would head it. The regent, who had disliked him for years, nevertheless entrusted the task to his party colleague. Pašić was abroad at the time.

Protić, born in 1857 in Kruševac, was one of the ideologues of the Radical Party and a well-known publicist, for many years minister of the interior and of finance. In July 1914, as minister of the interior, he co-drafted Serbia’s reply to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum. In November 1918 he opposed the Geneva agreement, and in Belgrade, together with the delegation from Zagreb, he prepared the proclamation of the kingdom. His government was a coalition of men from all parts of the new state. The Slovene Anton Korošec became deputy prime minister, the Croat Ante Trumbić, until then chairman of the Yugoslav Committee, foreign minister, and the Croatian Serb Svetozar Pribićević minister of the interior. The cabinet also included, among others, the leader of the Bosnian Muslims Mehmed Spaho, the Social Democrat Vitomir Korać and the leader of the Serbian Independent Radicals Ljubomir Davidović. The most important ministries, including the army, finance and internal affairs, nevertheless remained in Serbian hands.

The new government notified the Allied and neutral states of the creation of the Kingdom of SCS, but recognition was still some time in coming. Pašić, however, as the most experienced politician, headed the kingdom’s delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, where he sat alongside Trumbić and the diplomat Milenko Vesnić. Protić’s cabinet lasted until August 1919, and Pašić returned to the premiership in 1921 and held it, with a short break, until April 1926.