Aleksandar Vucic
President of Serbia
Aleksandar Vucic is a Serbian politician, the current president of Serbia since May 31, 2017, the general secretary of the National Security Council.
Prior to that, he was First Deputy Prime Minister (2012-2014), Minister of Defense (2012-2013) and Minister of Information (1998-2000). He has been chairman of the Serbian Progressive Party for 14 years.
He was born on March 5, 1970 , in Belgrade. His mother worked as a journalist for Radio-Television Serbia. Vucic graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade.
He started his career as a television reporter. In 1993 he joined the Serbian Radical Party, where he was elected to the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. In 1995 he was elected as the general secretary of the party. From 1996 to 1998 he was the head of the Sports and Business Center.
In 1998 , he became the Minister of Information in the government of President Slobodan Milosevic.
During the protests against Milosevic, he co-authored regulations that imposed fines on anti-government journalists. He was also the initiator of blocking foreign television. Vucic was then on the European Union's list of undesirable persons. In 2014, Vucic publicly apologized for his past actions.
In 2004 and 2008, he twice failed to run for mayor of Belgrade.
After the 2014 early parliamentary elections, the Progressive Party won 158 of the 250 seats in parliament and formed a governing coalition with the Socialist Party of Serbia. Vucic was then elected prime minister of Serbia.
On April 2, 2017 ,he won the Serbianpresidential election in the first round with 55 percent. The new president declared that Serbia would adhere to neutrality, so it would not join NATO, as well as create military alliances with Russia and China, the course of rapprochement with the EU would continue.
Since April 3, thousands of people have taken to the streets of Belgrade and other Serbian cities to protest the victory of Vucic, who was then prime minister, in the presidential election. The protesters gathered after calls on social media alleging that Vucic's supporters had rigged votes, giving him a convincing victory in the first round right away.
In December 2018, several thousand people again protested in Belgrade against Vucic and the government. Participants in the fourth in a row chanted "Vucic is a thief." In particular, Serbs demanded media freedom, an end to attacks on journalists and opposition politicians, and humiliation of the people.
In January 2019, Vucic spoke about visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin. At home, Putin played a piano to Vucic. In return, the Serbian president gave him an icon.
Personal life: Married, has two children.
