BELGRADE – The Prime Minister-designate, an endocrinologist Đuro Macut, submitted the list of the proposed ministers to the National Assembly of Serbia. A special session of the parliament for the election of the new government is scheduled for Tuesday, 15 April.
The former Prime Minister and one of the closest allies of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Miloš Vučević, announced his resignation on 28 January, following the attack on protesting students in Novi Sad, in which at least one student was seriously hurt. Vučević’s resignation was noted on 18 March by the National Assembly.
With the resignation of the Prime Minister, the government became technical, and the 30-day period for electing a new government began. The ruling parties have rejected the opposition’s proposal for the transitional “Government of People’s Trust” and opted to elect a new government with an old majority.
The majority of the members of the previous government, led by Miloš Vučević, are re-nominated, including the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Siniša Mali, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dačić, Minister of Foreign Affairs Marko Đurić, Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović and Minister of Defence Bratislav Gašić.
However, some of the members of Vučević’s outgoing cabinet did not make the cut. The most notable name is the pro-Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who is under US sanctions. Pro-Russian Minister without portfolio Nenad Popović, also under sanctions, remains in the government.
Minister for EU integration since 2022, Tanja Miščević, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, will also not be in the next government. She will be replaced by Nemanja Starović, the outgoing Minister of Labour, who was previously state secretary in the ministries of defence and foreign affairs.
The position of the Minister for Education has attracted significant attention in the context of the current student protests and university blockades. The new minister will be Dejan Vuk Stanković, widely known as a pro-government political commentator. In addition, he is a full professor at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Education.
In the first statement following the news that he had been proposed for the portfolio of education, Stanković said that “the largest educational crisis in the history of Serbia is currently occurring and that it must be resolved promptly”. TV Prva reports that he has also “urged professors to prepare lesson recovery plans and students in blockades to return to their faculties”.
Boris Bratina, who has been proposed as the Minister for Information, is considered to be the most controversial Minister in the future government of Serbia. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the far-right political organization SNP 1389.
A video circulating on the internet shows Bratina burning the flag of the EU during the protest organised on 24 March 2009 in Belgrade, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the start of the NATO bombing campaign on Serbia.
He is currently an assistant professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Priština, temporarily based in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Furthermore, Bratina is a member of the founding board of President Vučić’s new political organisation (association), informally called “Movement for the People and the State”. Several new ministers, including Prime Minister Đuro Macut, are members of the new movement, which analysts regard as an attempt of re-branding of the increasingly unpopular Serbian Progressive Party.