Nikola Selakovic, Minister of Culture in his second term in the Government of Serbia, on Wednesday (February 4) he found himself before the judges for the first time Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime in the "General Staff" case. He and three other civil servants were accused of creating a document with false content through a series of illegal actions, which served the authorities to build General Staff, damaged in the NATO bombing, removed the protection of cultural property and passed the lex specialis for its demolition.
A lawyer by profession, it will be that at the beginning of his career he did not hope to find himself on the other side of the judge's bench and that from the position of a high state official.
Legal career
He practiced law in the original sense of the word for three years when, from 2009 to 2012, he was employed at Faculty of Law University in Belgrade as an assistant. He completed his undergraduate and master's studies at this faculty and, according to his official biography, he is currently a doctoral student at this higher education institution. He enrolled in doctoral studies back in 2010, Istinomer writes.
He was also a member of the High Council of the Judiciary, as well as the State Prosecution Council.
While he was still working as an assistant at the faculty, he had a gaffe with a bottle of Croatian water - a female student complained that the assistant Selaković threw the bottle of Croatian water that was on her desk into the garbage.
Selaković first confirmed that story, saying that he threw the bottle wanting to explain to the students that they would help Serbia if they bought domestically.
He then denied that he had thrown the bottle, explained that it was all a lie and extravagance, and that during a lecture on crimes in the Second World War and Nazi-fascist legislation in the NDH, on the genocide of Serbs and pits in Croatia, he saw a bottle of Croatian water on a bench and commented that 70 years ago Serbs were thrown into pits, and today they drink Croatian water, Jamnica, because that Croatian-made water "is filled right in the village of Jamnica where Serbs lived until 1995 and today they are gone", and that a lie about throwing a bottle in the bin was constructed based on that story.
Ministerial career
The current Minister of Culture was previously the head of four other ministerial departments.
He held the position of Minister of Justice and State Administration from 2012 to 2014, when he was the youngest minister in the Government, and then Minister of Justice in the period from 2014 to 2016. A four-year ministerial break in his career followed, so from 2017 to 2020 he was the general secretary of the President of the Republic.
He returned to the Government in 2020, initially serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia until 2022. He was then appointed to the position of Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, where he stayed until 2024, when he was appointed Minister of Culture.
Political career
Born in 1983. As soon as he turned 18, he joined Vojislav Seselj's Serbian Radical Party. He joined the SRS, he said, out of a revolt that his father Miodrag, the general director of the Belgrade Footwear Industry, was fired after October 5 because he was a member of the SPS, and not because Šešelj was his role model, although at that time the Hague prisoner "gave the impression of a man who fought against the DOS regime".
Selaković's entry into SRS had only one goal: the fight against the ruling (DOS) regime, NIN wrote earlier.
When part of the radicals decided to separate and change into a progressive suit, along with the leaders of the new party, Aleksandar Vučić and Tomislav Nikolić, Selaković also renounced Sešelja.
He has been a member of SNS since 2008, i.e., its founding. He was a member of the Presidency, Main and Executive Committees, and in January 2014 he was elected as the vice-president of the party and remained in that position until May 2016. Since then he has been a member of the Presidency again.
By the decision of the President of the Republic, Aleksandar Vučić, on May 31, 2017, he was appointed to the position of General Secretary of the President of the Republic, which he held until October 27, 2020.
Although he took off his radical suit, he will be remembered for appearing in 2014, as a progressive, at a meeting with Orsat Miljenić, the Croatian Minister of Justice, wearing a sajkaka and a cockade. When the Croatian minister refused to sit at the same table with him because of this, Selaković retorted: "As for my cap, I will always proudly wear the cap worn by my ancestors on Cer, Kolubara, Corfu and Kajmakčalan."
Minister of Culture without work in culture
For the first time, he was elected Minister of Culture in the government of Miloš Vučević in 2024. He had various functions, responsibilities and activities, but only one that would qualify him for the position assigned to him, it said "Vreme" then.
In Selaković's long work biography, mostly filled with political functions, one activity is mentioned in which the word "culture" exists: Selaković is the founder, and in the period from 2011 to 2012 he was also the president of the Serbian cultural circle "Despot Stefan Lazarević".
After being elected Minister of Culture, Selaković said that he will focus on the preservation of cultural heritage. However, during his mandate, the protection of cultural property was removed from the buildings of the General Staff of the Serbian Army and the Ministry of Defense in Belgrade, which is why he is now on the dock.
