Zdravko Ponoš was born in 1962 in the village of Golubić near Knin, where he grew up and graduated from elementary school. As he himself said before, he was looking for ways to leave the village, so he moved to Zagreb after graduating from high school and enrolled in the Military Technical High School. This was followed by the Military Academy, where he obtained a degree in electronics engineering, then postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
After school, he worked at the Military Technical Institute in Užice, with occasional trips to Kosovo and Metohija, where he was on duty during the NATO bombing in 1999. He had the task of monitoring the movement of enemy aviation with the aim of reducing losses on the Yugoslav side as much as possible, which he described as the "brightest part" of his work.
After October 5 and the regime change, he started working in the Directorate for International Military Cooperation, through which he met Boris Tadić, who was still only a member of the Parliament. Cooperating with members of the armies of other countries, he then begins the path of a military reformer. He was educated at Western schools and seminars, hence the remarks of the uninitiated that he is a "NATO general".
Due to the contribution to the modernization of the army, "Vreme" awarded him the personality of the year award for 2006.
He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General in 2006 and appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Army. His opponents say that he "melted tanks" during the general staff meeting, but even then he said that the army must "adapt to asymmetric, modern threats" such as terrorism, where tanks do not help, especially not ancient ones. Some said, and still say now, that he reduced the combat readiness of the army, while others say that he modernized and professionalized it.
He remained in the position of the first man of the Army for only two years, because already in 2008 he clashed with the then Minister of Defense Dragan Šutanovec. The conflict escalated after the traditional New Year's reception at which Ponoš and the general staff officers did not appear. Namely, Ponoš pointed out that the defense policy exists only on paper, that nothing is implemented in practice and that budget money is not spent as it should be. Šutanovac retaliated by accusing Ponoš of damaging the reputation of the army and endangering the democratic order. Serbian President Boris Tadić sided with his godfather Sutanovac and replaced Ponoš.
By decree of the President of the Republic, he retired in 2009, after which he became an adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vuk Jeremic. He was in the cabinet of his current (still on paper) party leader from 2010 until the change of government two years later. Jeremić is from 2012-2013. held the position of President of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), and Ponoš was the head of his cabinet at the UN.
He stayed with Jeremic and the last presidential elections in 2017. when he won just over 5 percent of the vote. Immediately after that, the People's Party was formed, and Ponoš became its vice president.
In an interview for "Vreme" in August 2021, he said: "In Vučić's Serbia, we have a synergy of greed, incompetence and arrogance." We have a government that uses criminals to suppress street protests and bring order to stadiums, security services to organize the production of marijuana and monitor opposition politicians and journalists, government planes and diplomatic posts to take icons and cash out of the country, previously converted into foreign currency in purpose-built exchange offices. The Belivuk case is Vučić's blunder that accelerates his downfall. He is aware of that and that's why he started a frantic campaign of justification and distraction."
Ponoš was sent into the race with Aleksandar Vučić by a coalition gathered around SSP, NS and DS i Assembly of Free Serbia, while the green-left coalition Moramo is "open for talks".
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