Following the resignation of the former president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, Ana Brnabić was recently appointed as the Baltic nation’s first lesbian president. Her appointment September 28 was not the result of an election, however. Rather, it was due to the country’s law which requires that she, as speaker of parliament, be instated as acting president following the early resignation of the former president. It is significantly important that she is the first known lesbian to serve as a president in recorded global history, but her role will be short-lived. Serbia’s constitution requires that presidential elections occur within the three month period following such a resignation.
LGBTQ+ communities around the world have reacted with astonishment and Brnabić herself has stated her general support for the rights of LGBT Serbians, but she remains a controversial political figure among Serbian LGBT rights groups. Throughout her time as an elected official, her lack of legislative initiative regarding same-sex marriage, civil unions and adoption rights, all of which remain unrecognized or illegal by the Serbian state despite the existence of anti-discrimination laws have been a point of contention. Brnabić herself stated upon her appointment as prime minister in 2017, “I do not want to be branded ‘Serbia’s gay PM.’”
Brnabić’s silence on these issues is often viewed by rights groups and activists as hypocritical, as she and her partner have a son together as a result of artificial insemination that her partner received while traveling abroad.
Furthermore, as a member of the right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and close ally to former President Aleksandar Vučić, activists and critics often view Brnabić as a political pawn of Vučić and the SNS, used as a progressive liberal facade to satisfy Western powers and the European Union while the party and Vučić maintain increasingly authoritarian domestic policies.
After having served the constitutional limit of two five-year terms as president, Vučić’s early resignation will potentially allow him to be appointed prime minister in the upcoming snap parliamentary vote Oct. 25. Brnabić, as acting interim president, allows Vučić and his party to maintain political power as he campaigns for parliament.
With Vučić at the helm, the SNS has held power for the past 14 years in Serbia.
Efforts toward change, however, appear to be on the rise. Triggered by a railway station canopy collapse in Novi Sad that killed 16 people as the result of alleged governmental negligence on Nov. 1, 2024, students have been leading anti-government protests for almost two years.
These protests culminated in an electoral bid by the student-led movement known as Students Win on September 14. They officially submitted a list of 250 candidates to the Republic Election Commission featuring professionals, doctors and professors rather than career politicians. The group is advocating for government transparency, anti-corruption, judicial independence and accountability for public infrastructure disasters.
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