Photo: Jadranka Ilić/TanjugHe does not mind Belgrade on the water, he will try to eliminate the "old communist legacy", he lives for the day when he will be able to "break up" the rafts on the Sava Embankment. He wants to make Belgrade a "good and beautiful place to live" in the next few years. He is neither a Russophile, nor a Eurofanatic, nor a Eurosceptic. He stands for "a maximally rational policy". He heads the list for the Belgrade elections of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), whose vice president he became last year. The other Aleksandar is still hesitant to officially nominate him as a candidate for mayor of Belgrade
Aleksandar Šapić was born in 1978 in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Management and Administration, and received his master's and doctorate degrees in industrial management from Union University. He belongs to that group of politicians whose doctoral work has been called into question, and the Union has never declared whether Šapić's doctorate was plagiarized or not.
He says he never insisted on being a doctor of science, and these days he sees the title as an attempt to mock him. "This is usually done when we want to make fun of that person, and then we call him by his professional training, that is, based on the acquired education and the formal qualification it carries."
Unlike the title "Doctor Šapić", he is less bothered by the nickname "Gangula", which he received after his episodic role in the film "When I grow up I will be a kangaroo". "I got the nickname Gangula because malicious people wanted to disparage me and insult me in that way, and they don't realize that it is one of my great successes in life."
Before he got involved in politics, he was one of the best water polo players in the world, a member of the generation that made water polo a national sport. He is the best scorer in the history of Yugoslavia, and the World Federation of Sports and Culture declared him the best striker of all time.
He swam from the swimming pool into political waters at the end of 2004, and later he would admit that the main reason for his entry into politics was "that Boris Tadić took over the leadership of the party and the state". From 2009, he was an assistant to the then mayor of Belgrade, Dragan Đilas, until 2012 and the first election for President of the Municipality of Novi Beograd at the head of which he is still today. He resigned from the Democratic Party at the end of 2014, "not because of the organization but because of the people."
Šapić's success in running Belgrade's largest municipality is widely discussed. It is a favorite of pensioners because of its famous free excursions. It is also praised by parents for its free textbooks and swimming lessons for children. However, stories from the other side of the law are also known, such as the one about setting up a tender for singer Vlada Georgijev for New Year's Eve. Populist measures and free programs have led to unjustified spending of municipal funds, and residents of New Belgrade are increasingly dissatisfied with the management.
Before the city assembly elections in 2018, he was the target of chorused insults by representatives of the ruling party. There is almost no progressive who did not turn to Šapić at that time. They reproached him for being "the extended hand of Dragan Đilas", for "robbing the citizens with Jeremić, and now attacking the city coffers", as well as for being "the spokesman for the thief-tycoon coalition". After that he said yes no agreement with SNS about the joint management of Belgrade. "I can be 'Saint Peter', not the mayor, there is no agreement." And there is no agreement because everything we stand for is the opposite of how they behave."
It didn't take him long to forget all the complaints, as well as his promises. In the middle of 2021, Šapić made "century transfer". He merged his young political organization Serbian Patriotic Union - SPAS, founded in 2018, with SNS and became the vice-president of the Progressive Party. "Since I formed SPAS, at a certain point I realized that there is no difference between the politics of SPAS and SNS". The "marriage of the century", as part of the public assessed his deal with SNS, former opposition colleagues saw it as proof that Šapić is part of the same corrupt clique as the government.
Aleksandar Šapić announces that he will try to transfer all that he has done during the past years in the municipality of Novi Beograd to the city. Its goal is to "get as close as possible to the person, but not only during the mandate". "Let's try to bring local politics even lower." Centers will be opened throughout Belgrade, "which will be equally arranged, where citizens will be able to come and check what is happening in their municipality and give their suggestions."
He does not mind Belgrade on the water, and if he becomes mayor, he will try to eliminate the "old communist heritage". He doesn't know how to work "other than as a team", because he "was involved in team sports", although he doesn't see Goran Vesić in his team. In the next few years, he wants to make Belgrade a good and beautiful place to live.
He is neither a Russophile, nor a Eurofanatic, nor a Eurosceptic. He stands for "a maximally rational policy". Aleksandar Šapić is the first on the list for the Belgrade elections of the Serbian Progressive Party. Whether he will actually be a progressive candidate for the mayor of Belgrade will be decided by the second Aleksandar.
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