Vladimir Orlic he got the go-ahead from the National Security Council to become chief Security and information agencies. Nothing but a green light was expected.
Thus, BIA will remain in the hands of the Serbian Progressive Party. Its new chief will have the opportunity to prove himself as a reliable universal soldier of the party in one more place.
Orlić (41) is still counted among the younger guard of progressives, although his path was significantly different from the "young leaders" from the progressive academy.
He is one of the few in the party establishment who has a real diploma from the most respected faculty in Serbia, electrical engineering, as well as a doctorate and even some work experience.
He joined the SNS at the very beginning, in 2008, unlike the radicals who were changing their minds - like Aleksandar Martinović, or those who flew in from other parties like Milenko Jovanov.
That is why in the trill of long-term SNS strikers from the parliamentary benches - Orlić, Martinović, Jovanov - this man with high sideburns and a deep, monotonous voice is perhaps Aleksandar Vučić's biggest confidant.
Orlić is not known to be part of any currents and clans in SNS, and it seems that he is a staff with whom Vučić cannot make a mistake when he puts in his hands a powerful intelligence apparatus.
Zihera's choice
The path has already been blazed since 2017 when party colleague Bratislav Gašić, a baron from Kruševac who is also considered to have ties to the Jovanjica marijuana plantation, was appointed head of the BIA.
He was followed by the fanatical and irrational Aleksandar Vulin, who resigned when he was hit by American sanctions.
Compared to the previous boss, Orlić is almost a Zihera choice. In truth, he is not without baggage either, since he is followed by the story that he was illegally hired as a lecturer at the Higher Medical School in Ćuprija, thus obtaining additional privileges for himself. Orlić lied that he was not employed at the school, but the documents showed that he was.
Lying is no stranger to Vladimir Orlić, who honed his craft in the progressive committee in Čukarica, and was elected several times as a Belgrade councilor and MP.
The crown of his political career so far was the position of President of the National Assembly (from 2022), where he remained for a little over a year.
From his exalted position in the parliament, Orlić perfected the technique of haughty cynicism with which he humiliated the opposition, took away the floor as he pleased and gained additional points from Aleksandar Vučić.
In general, Orlić's attempts to imitate the performance of the head of state are astonishing, similar to how he changes theses, makes pauses in his speech, interrupts his interlocutors.
He often liked the role of being a "band-aid" for interviewees on rare public service debate shows. He proved that he was able to keep anyone from speaking for a full hour.
Compare the opposition with the Nazis
He routinely compares the opposition to Hitler and Goebbels, calling them "scum" and "scum". In his performance, as in Vučić's, the truth is an optional thing that is used only if it serves a propaganda purpose. If it doesn't serve, then it turns upside down.
"Today, it seems, they decided to go into action and not only demolished, like a rampaging gang, various premises in Belgrade and Novi Sad and in other places, but also attacked people," he said on the day of the June elections for Alo.
He told fabrications about "broken heads", some "scratched girls". Serbia must never again fall into "their sinister clutches", warned Orlić, because they would "thoroughly rob and destroy everything" and "physically destroy other people" who are not up to their standards through the system of the court system.
All in all, Orlić is a photo-robot of an ideal progressive, as imagined by Vučić. It is not known that he got rich, he knows how to speak wickedly and sharply, he is persistent and, above all, loyal.
BIA thus, from the point of view of the head of state, fell into the best possible hands. That agency has long been less concerned with its original business and more with ties to organized crime, spying on "domestic enemies" and tipping off.
There is every chance that Orlić will shine there as well.
