Serbia Is Set to Get Its First Female, and First Openly Gay, Premier

RisingWorld 2017-06-30

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Serbia Is Set to Get Its First Female, and First Openly Gay, Premier
By BARBARA SURKJUNE 28, 2017
BELGRADE, Serbia — When President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia nominated Ana Brnabic to the powerful post of prime minister this month, the West hailed it as a landmark decision
that put her on course to become the country’s first female and first openly gay premier.
Milan Nic, an expert on the Balkans at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, said Ms. Brnabic fit perfectly into what he called "the era of Vucic." "She is capable and smart,
but she will be a weak prime minister," Mr. Nic said.
They were appalled that Ms. Brnabic had agreed to join what they call Mr. Vucic’s autocratic government, handing him a weapon — her sexual orientation — to potentially use as a cover for human rights abuses, to stifle independent news media
and to erode nascent democratic institutions in the last Balkan country with a pro-Russian government.
But on Wednesday in Belgrade, the capital, Ms. Brnabic, a relative novice on Serbia’s political scene, faced down opponents in a speech at the Parliament, which is set to vote on a new government
and approve her as prime minister — a mere formality given her party’s majority in the legislature — following a lengthy debate.
But some deeply conservative politicians called her nomination part of a degenerate Western plot,
and critics on the left and some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Serbs dismissed her as Mr. Vucic’s puppet.
Serbian said that Ana Brnabic is a capable woman, a worthy woman,
and I believe she will work with her whole heart to solve many problems in this country,
Zoe Gudovic said that The only thing I share with Ana Brnabic is that we are both lesbians,

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