Serbia’s new government
Stelian TeodorescuOn 25th October, Serbia’s prime-minister, Ana Brnabic, presented the members of the new government she will lead. A. Brnabic was nominated for a second prime-minister mandate by the Serbian Progressive Party (SPP), at the beginning of October. However, president Aleksandar Vucic, who is also SPP’s leader, announced that the new government will have a short mandate and that anticipated elections will soon be held, along with the future presidential elections, until April 2022. Therefore, the new government of Serbia will only be taking the lead for two years, at least, or approximately half of the normal four years mandate.
In the new established government of prime-minister Ana Brnabic, half of the ministers who were nominated are new people and the other half was part of the previous cabinet.
Out of the 23 ministers, 11 of them are women and six of them are new ministers, who were not previously connected with SPP or with the Socialist Party from Serbia (SPS), led by Ivica Dacic, who was elected president of the parliament on October 23th.
The Minister of Finances, Sinisa Mali, Minister of Agriculture, Branislav Nedimovic, Minister of Health, Zlatibor Loncar, Minister of Youth and Sports, Vanja Udovicic, Minister of European Integration, Jadranka Joksimovic and the Minister of State aAdministration and Local sSelf-administration, Marija Obradovic, will keep their positions in the following government as well.
Former members on different position from the previous government were nominated for leading other ministers, as following: Zorana Mihajlovic will lead the Minister of Mines and energy, Tatjana Matic will be promoted for the minister of commerce, Tourism and Telecommunications position, Aleksandar Vulin will lead the Minister of Home Affairs and Nikola Selakovivc will be the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the following government, there will be a new minister, dedicated to Human Rights and Minorities and Social Dialogue, which will be led by Gordana Comic.
The Ministry of Economy will be led by Andelka Antanaskovic , Irena Vujovic got the Minister of Environment Protection position and Nebojsa Stefanovic became Minister of Defence.
Maja Popovic will lead the Ministry of Justice, meanwhile Darika Kisic Tepavcevic, who was a member of the crisis team for the fight against coronavirus, will lead the Ministry of Labor. The Ministry of Families, Children and Demography will be led by journalist Ratko Dmitrovic and the former president of the parliament, Maja Gojkovic, has become Minister of Culture and Information. Milan Krkobabi, former minister the no portfolio available, will lead the Ministry for Villages, meanwhile the business man Tomislav Momirovic will lead the Ministry of Constructions, Transports and Infrastructure. Also, there are two ministers who have no portfolios: Nenad Popovic and Novica Toncev.
Given the establishment of a new government in Serbia, we should not ignore also that the SPP won more than 60% of the votes at the general elections from June 21st. Furthermore, at the beginning of October, A. Vucic announced that his party will enter a coalition with the current coalition partner SPS and the Serbian Patriotic Alliance.
A. Vucic also said that the next government will focus on combating the coronavirus pandemic and on improving the health system’s capacity.
It is also noteworthy that it was advanced that idea that the new government should also defend Serbia’s interests in the negotiations with Kosovo and continue to fight against mafia. Also, they should start doing reforms, especially in terms of the rule of law, the European integration and human rights. A. Vucic also said the next government will have to get to a 6% economic increase by 2021.
The next general election will be held no later than April 3rd 2022, along with the presidential elections, A. Vucic underlining also that “it defined six main objectives for the new government”, such as the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, keeping Serbia’s interests in Kosovo, the fight against the mafia and organized crime, keeping Serbia’s independent foreign policy, promoting the rule of law in the perspective of a European integration and support country’s economic increase.
Translated by Andreea Soare
