With 152 votes "for", 61 "against" and no abstentions, the deputies of the National Assembly voted in a public vote for the new Government of Serbia on May 2. One of the most numerous governments in recent Serbian history has a total of 32 members - Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, one vice-president without a relevant ministry and 30 ministers, five of whom are without portfolios.
Some of the ministers extended their mandate in line ministries, others moved from one chair to another, and still others found themselves in the roles of ministers for the first time. Among the ministers, there was also a large number of those for whom membership in the Serbian Progressive Party was not their first "rodeo". Popularly speaking - flyovers.
First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance: Siniša Mali
Siniša Mali will continue to hold the position of Minister of Finance during the term of Miloš Vučević, where he first came in 2018. Before joining the Government of Serbia, he was the mayor of Belgrade from 2014 to 2018. Before becoming mayor, he was a special advisor for the economy. and finance in the government of then prime minister Aleksandar Vučić.
Nevertheless, Vučić's confidant and one of the most prominent officials during the SNS rule worked from 2001 to 2003 as an assistant in the Ministry of Economy and Privatization, where he was also deputy minister for a time, and then as director of the Center for tender privatization in the Privatization Agency.
From that place, he manages tender and auction privatization, restructuring and the capital market. After the abolition of the Center for Privatization, he became the director of the Center for Tenders, and he remained in that position until the end of 2003.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior: Ivica Dačić
The president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, is considered one of the longest-serving politicians on the Serbian political scene.
From 2022 until the formation of the current convocation, he held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 2020 to 2022, he took a short break in the role of minister, and tried his hand at the function of president of the National Assembly. Before that, from 2014 to 2020, he was the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
From 2012 to 2014, Dacic served as Prime Minister.
However, Ivica Dačić was an important political figure even before cooperation with SNS, and he performed his first role as Minister of Internal Affairs from 2008 to 2012, during the government of Mirko Cvetković. Dacic was also the Minister of Information in the so-called Transitional Government of the Republic of Serbia from October 2000 to January 2001.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister without Portfolio: Aleksandar Vulin
It didn't take long for Aleksandar Vulin to get a new position after resigning as director of the Security and Information Agency (BIA). This time, Vulin did not receive a specific portfolio, but was rewarded with the role of Deputy Prime Minister.
From 2020 to 2022, Vulin held the position of Minister of the Interior, and from 2017 he was the Minister of Defense. Since 2014, he has held the position of Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs. In 2012, he was appointed director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, after which he became a minister without portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija. Vulin is the founder of the Socialist Movement, whose president he was until 2022.
He was also a prominent member of the Yugoslav Left led by Mira Marković. Before founding the Socialist Movement, Vulin was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia during the first decade of the 20th century.
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Marko Đurić
Marko Đurić comes to the position of the head of diplomacy after serving as Serbia's ambassador to the United States of America. In May 2014, Đurić was appointed director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija.
He was the head of the negotiation team between Belgrade and Pristina and the head of the negotiating group for Chapter 35 in the process of Serbia's accession to the EU. In the period from 2012 to 2014, he was a foreign policy advisor to the President of Serbia. Đurić is one of the founders and first members of the Serbian Progressive Party, and in 2009 he became the coordinator of the Legal Team and assistant to the deputy president of the party, Aleksandar Vučić.
At the end of 2012, he became a member of the Presidency of SNS, and in May 2016, he was elected vice-president of SNS.
Marko Đurić's political engagement began in 2000, when he joined the Resistance movement. There he became an activist in the press team and a participant in the October XNUMX events, which led to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević's regime.
Minister for European Integration: Tanja Miščević
As a non-party person, Tanja Miščević remains in the position of Minister for European Integration, for which she was elected in 2022. From 2013 to 2019, she was the head of the Team for negotiations between the Republic of Serbia and the European Union.
Even before the rule of the SNS, Miščević had a notable role. From 2009 to 2011, she held the position of Vice President of the Anti-Corruption Agency, and from 2010 to 2012, she was the State Secretary at the Ministry of Defense.
Before that, she was the director of the Office for European Integration of the Government of Serbia from 2005 to 2008.
Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure: Goran Vesić
And Goran Vesić remains in the position of Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, for which he was elected in 2022.
Today he is a member of the SNS Presidency, but he is also known as a former deputy mayor of Belgrade and a former prominent member of the Democratic Party in the period from 1990 to 2013.
In the 2000 elections, Vesić was elected as a deputy of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, as a candidate on the electoral list of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia.
Later, he held numerous positions, of which the period from 2003 to 2004, when he was Deputy Minister of Defense, should be highlighted.
Minister of Education: Slavica Đukić Dejanović
Similar to Ivica Dačić, Slavica Đukić Dejanović also held significant positions before 2012. Which, after all, is also logical because she is a member of the SPS, the party that, before cooperating with the SNS, was in power together with the Democratic Party from 2008 to 2012.
During that period, Đukić Dejanović was the president of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. In seven mandates, she was a deputy in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, the Federal Parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. From 2012 to 2014, she was the Minister of Health in the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
From August 2016 to October 2020, she served as a minister without portfolio in the Government of the Republic of Serbia in charge of demography and population policy.
Minister for Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs: Nemanja Starović
Nemanja Starović held the position of State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense from 2022 until his election as a minister. Before that, he was the State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He was elected as a member of the Novi Sad Assembly in 2008 as a member of the Serbian Reconstruction Movement, and also served as a member of the City Council for Education. He was the president of the Executive Board of SPO, and in 2015 he became a member of the Main Board of the Serbian Progressive Party.
Minister for Family Care and Demography: Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski
Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, better known as Milica Zavetnica, is the president and co-founder of the Zavetnici political party. From 2022 until the convocation of the current government, she was a member of parliament. Into the 2023 election race.
The Covenanters entered as the opposition, in a coalition with Dveri, but did not pass the census. Nevertheless, shortly after the December elections, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said that he liked to see her in his party, calling her a talented politician.
Before her ministerial position, Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski was known for her harsh criticism of the regime, and SNS members often called her a "liar". Đurđević Stamenkovski is the daughter of journalist and writer Rajko Đurđević, who was an active member of the Serbian Radical Party during the 1990s.
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management: Aleksandar Martinović
In the previous convocation of the Government, Aleksandar Martinović was the Minister for State Administration and Local Self-Government, while in the current convocation he will perform the function of Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.
However, before joining the Serbian Progressive Party, Martinović was an active member of the Serbian Radical Party.
Until his transfer to the SNS in 2012, Martinović often criticized Serbian presidents Aleksandar Vučić and Tomislav Nikolic, calling the SNS a "mafia, thief, tycoon creation".
After joining the progressives, his apology to Vučić and Nikolić is known, with the words that "he turned out to be an ass and the biggest political fool".
Minister for the care of the countryside: Milan Krkobabić
Milan Krkobabić remains in the position he has held since 2020 in the previous two convocations of the Government. In the period from 2008 to 2012. From August 2016 to October 2020, he held the position of minister without portfolio in the Government of the Republic of Serbia in charge of regional development and coordination of the work of public enterprises.
In September 2012, he was appointed to the position of general director of the Public Enterprise "Post of Serbia", which he held until August 2016. Krkobabić was the deputy mayor of Belgrade from 2008 to 2012.
He is one of the founders and president of the Party of United Pensioners of Serbia (PUPS), which together with the Socialist Party of Serbia and United Serbia formed the government with the Democrats in 2008.
Minister for Public Investments: Darko Glišić
Glišić is a minister for the first time, but before his new position he was elected president of the Municipality of Ub three times.
He started his political career in the Serbian Radical Party, which he left in 2008, becoming one of the founders of the Serbian Progressive Party, where he currently holds the position of president of the Executive Committee.
He was a Member of Parliament in two parliamentary convocations from 2003 to 2008.
Minister without portfolio: Nenad Popović
Nenad Popović was elected as a minister without portfolio for two terms from 2017 to 2022. He was a Member of Parliament for two terms, and in 2012 he was elected as the Vice President of the Assembly.
He started his political career in the Democratic Party of Serbia, and after leaving that party in 2014, he founded the Serbian People's Party, which he still heads.
Popović served as vice president of the Coordination Center of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohija from 2006 to 2007. During 2006, he was appointed to the position of vice president of the Coordination Body of Serbia for the municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa, and in 2007 he was appointed deputy president of this governmental body.
Minister without portfolio: Tatjana Matsura
Tatjana Macura was a member of parliament from 2016 to 2020. She started her political career in the "Enough is Enough" movement, where she was also a member of the Main Board.
She left the movement in 2018, when she founded the Party of Modern Serbia together with four other former deputies of the DJB. In November 2023, before the extraordinary parliamentary elections, Matsura took the 22nd place on the "Aleksandar Vučić - Serbia must not stand still" election list, when she pointed out that she was "candidated as a non-party person".
She is the president of the "Moms are Law" association and an entrepreneur.
