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Ivan Milenkovic

Ivan Milenković (1965), philosopher by education, translator by vocation, critic by temperament. He deals with political and contemporary French philosophy. Published three books, more than 40 scientific papers and translated ten books from the French language. Member of the NIN jury from 2018 to 2021. He has been writing for Vreme for a quarter of a century.

Latest news

Interview: Dejan Šoškić, economist

People or corruption?

Who do we see as "great experts" in that regime who supposedly know something? Mostly trained people with purchased diplomas. Evidently, the biggest "experts" with them are one person who allegedly graduated from a badly ranked correspondence business school in rural America, one twice-proven plagiarist, and one elderly woman who allegedly received her doctorate from a private university, where her party president completed a master's thesis at about the same time, the title of which he did not know when he was asked about it publicly. The student list has more than 140 Ph.D. These are people of incomparably greater abilities. There is no need to waste words on the difference between honesty and morality

Ivan Milenkovic

Celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the Serbian Progressive Party

Analyze

Why the Essenes are the epitome of barbarians

What are barbarians and why the upcoming elections are not just a battle for a change of government, but a fight to get out of systemic barbarism

Ivan Milenkovic

Interview: Jovo Bakić, sociologist, professor at the University of Belgrade

We will win, the people are making a campaign for all of us

This is a struggle between those who fight for the common good and those who have captured the state, who are raping society and tearing it apart. In that fight, this first party must win. Otherwise, we will become like those Latin American countries where the drug cartels hold the state captive: they are connected to politicians, the extreme right, most often the Church, the army and the police and, of course, the Supreme Court

Ivan Milenkovic

Interview: Saša Stojanović, writer, organizer of the "Think Tank Town" Literature Festival

The time of the pack is over.

Apart from personal obsessions, apart from pain for those who are gone and love for those who come after us, apart from deceptive truth and unattainable freedom, there are also the eternal Eros and Thanatos, the two only themes that will never cease to be obsessions for anyone who lives, or at least tries to live, literature

Ivan Milenkovic

Student list, submission

Comment

Serbian political fairy tale: Honorable amateurs against professional hooligans

When did Europe see that a list of 250 parliamentary candidates led by professional political hooligans was opposed by a list of 250 political amateurs and honorable people? It sounds like a fairy tale. Will the outcome be like in a fairy tale: the victory of good over evil?

Ivan Milenkovic

Pre-election debates started on N1

Comment

Brnabić vs. Nikolić: Nightmare against dialogue

An attempt at a debate between Ana Brnabić and prof. Mirjane Nikolić on TV N1 once again showed what was expected: SNS officials do not want, or are not capable of conducting a civilized dialogue.

Ivan Milenkovic

Public morality

About defaced monuments and other scandals

When, for example, there are enough or too many grapes, their price falls. It is the same with the value of money. When money is printed, and there is no cover for its value - inflation starts. The same thing happens with the Essenes abominations. In these 14 years, when, with unchanged enthusiasm, they are destroying the country of Serbia, the only stable growth, with creative steps, has been observed in the Essenes production of abomination. In that truly rich breviary of shamelessness, not a single insult that the rich Serbian language abounds in is left out. But there is a limit to that, and the limit of insult is its ineffectiveness

Ivan Milenkovic

Autocratic jobs

What unites and what divides Trump and Vučić

The presidents of the USA and Serbia showed a creative approach to creating a parallel reality. As with Trump, Vučić has no other motive than to preserve personal power, nothing that would benefit the community, and every promise he makes is not there to be fulfilled, but to appease and mobilize his (less educated or older) voters. In this inflation of promises, the value of promises is also lost. In responsible communities, a promise is a performative act: to promise means to fulfill a promise, you don't promise if you can't fulfill it. Therein lies the difference between truth and lies. What remains? Nothing, in fact, except for bewildered and disoriented citizens who are increasingly becoming subjects

Ivan Milenkovic

23. May

Comment

The birth of citizens from the spirit of the republic

The overthrow of Vučić's regime in the elections is child's play compared to what awaits us afterwards: the rebuilding of a country destroyed to the core. There is no more difficult task than to make citizens out of subjects, but it is a question of Serbia's survival

Ivan Milenkovic

Aleksandar Vučić

Comment

Vučić is against everyone, but really

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, backed himself into a corner, separating himself from everyone, including his own party. That is why, when he steps up against 250 people of integrity from the Student List, he will finally really be alone, as he has been bizarrely boasting for years.

Ivan Milenkovic

Confrontation

The meaning of theater in a culture-destroying regime

"Irrelevant theater has to play its irrelevant plays only when there are civil unrest outside and when there is a call for change," Marina Magyarev told Vreme. "Irrelevant theater is afraid of change. That's why it cowardly defends its position by hiding behind performances, rehearsals and impartial professionalism. Only then is theater important for them"

Ivan Milenkovic

Novel

Paths that lead nowhere

Damir Karakas, Sunshade, Magic book, Belgrade 2026.

Ivan Milenkovic

Comment

Serbian society is not divided, but unfree

One "side" is made up of members of the regime, corrupt policemen, bought and blackmailed criminals, and rich people who have been enabled by the regime to get rich, while the other side is made up of citizens who gather around the idea of freedom. However, such distribution of forces is not enough to call Serbian society divided

Ivan Milenkovic

Pre-election portrait: Aleksandar Vučić in the campaign

Why isn't he one of us?

"When a real human tragedy occurs, such as the death of a miner, a helicopter crew, and the fall of a canopy, the mask of pathos falls - acting and artificial emotional overwork burst, and beneath them the real, cold nature and calculation is revealed," psychologist Ana Mirković tells "Vreme". "The reason is simple: real misfortune and real grief require taking responsibility and sincere empathy, and the authoritarian instinct perceives this as weakness"

Ivan Milenkovic

Novel

Three sex workers and other heroics

Ante Tomic, Kraljević Marko frees Imotski, Laguna, Belgrade, 2026

Ivan Milenkovic

Aleksandar Vučić in Paraćin

Comment

The triumph of the will over the ruins of the republic

Vučić's Igrokaz na Grza, when he abused the misfortune of a citizen and her family, was, of course, a cheap media trick, but that does not diminish its scandalousness. On the contrary. It was a demonstration of the power of a man devoid of emotions and the fences of civilization, who tramples the law in front of the cameras

Ivan Milenkovic

Faculty of Philosophy in Niš

Rehearsing the destruction of the university

Behind the alleged concern about "identity sciences" is hidden what we have long known from this government - a shameless populist and nationalist manipulation of feelings behind which there is nothing, but absolutely nothing that would have anything to do with the public interest.

Ivan Milenkovic

Protest

Comment

Desnica and Vučić: Caliph instead of Caliph

Right-wing parties cannot support the student movement, despite the Kosovo students' pledge and all that iconography according to the principle "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia". Because the right-wing understanding of the world is particular, and the students firmly stand on the universality of the republican soil

Ivan Milenkovic

The MUP helicopter extinguishes the fire in Deliblatska peščara

Fire in Deliblatska peščara

A view of the fire from the scene: The disaster in Deliblatska Peščara

In 1977, the Deliblat sandbar was declared a Special Nature Reserve as a unique biodiversity formed on sandy soil, which does not exist anywhere else in Europe. Now over 700 hectares are burning. Stefan Cvetković, an evacuated resident of the village of Šumarak, tells "Vreme" how he experiences it

Ivan Milenkovic

Artificial intelligence and morality

Creating a better person

If one Elon Musk is behind the artificial intelligence project and if he is wondering something, and he is wondering, what can we expect from the "intelligent" machine that comes out of his mint other than the "improved" Musk, that is, an imbecile squared

Ivan Milenkovic

Interview: Kruno Lokotar, editor

In the garden of books

If one knows how to generate intensive language, the rest can be learned. The reverse is much more difficult. Writing requires dedication, it doesn't go along with a hundred other jobs, it requires the sacrifice of solitude, isolation, immersion, if that is a sacrifice. Instantaneity is easily recognisable, sometimes editorial risks are taken with it. But everything is clear, if not sooner, on the second book. All this does not mean that someone is infallible, there are trends and generations that we do not necessarily understand

Ivan Milenkovic

Tamara Dzamonja Ignjatović

Management techniques and consequences

Vučić gained only contempt with his repressive policy

When physical violence turns out to be too bare a manifestation of force, other forms of fear are more used, which also threaten existence: loss of job, especially if the person is supporting a family. Additionally, the fear of being endangered is produced not only as a direct threat but also as a threat from 'enemies' who threaten the country, the survival of the Serbian people, Orthodoxy and the like.

Ivan Milenkovic

To meet the elections

About political effectiveness and opposition affairs

If they do not unite, but decide to appear in the elections as fragments, the pro-European opposition parties will not only commit political suicide, but that suicide will cause damage to the environment. In the event that some parties go to the elections alone, it would be like jumping from a building under which a crowd of people gathered against the regime

Ivan Milenkovic

Interview: Lazar Atanasković, philosopher

Who to tell a story to (when no one is listening)

When I first heard the word tradition and thought about it - I was watching a show about Scotland, I was about ten years old - I believed that the Scots were some people who, despite all the practical advantages of the modern way of dressing, still wore loose dresses without underwear. Why do they do that? Well: tradition!

Ivan Milenkovic

President of Serbia

Comment

Why is the honorary president of the Republic important?

Let's start from the fact that Vučić's regime first manages to steal parliamentary elections and then calls presidential elections, which any of his candidates can hardly win. An honorable president of the Republic in a dishonorable system would be like a sheep's hole in a fabric that has already been thoroughly washed

Ivan Milenkovic

Attachments for biography

What would Machiavelli say?

Why is Vučić a Machiavellian, and Machiavelli is not? In what way did Machiavelli descend into the heart of darkness? Which is why corruption is a cancer of society, and Vučić is the main oncologist who works diligently on the unhindered spread of cancer cells. In other words, can Serbia, according to Machiavelli's analysis, ever recover from Vučić? This is why a good conflict is healing for society, and why public branding of one person leads to ruin

Ivan Milenkovic

Romans

A plain-hearted servant

Vincent Delacroix, Sinking; translated from French by Olja Petronić; Štrik, Bograd, 2025.

Ivan Milenkovic