Ana Brnabic: How open lesbian became the prime minister of Serbia
Dmitry Kurkin
The news that the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabich a son was born - her partner Milica Dzhurdzhich became the biological mother - she received an inevitable political tint. Brnabic, in the summer of 2017, became the first woman and the first open lesbian who took the post of Serbian Prime Minister (and remains one of the few LGBT politicians of such a rank), will have to put up with the fact that her country still does not recognize - and is not even going to recognize - same-sex marriages.
LGBT rights are still a painful issue for Serbian society. On the one hand, since the beginning of the 2000s, the country has gradually banned any type of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as incitement to hatred. On the other hand, in a country where a significant part of the population adheres to traditional religious views in matters of family and marriage, homophobia and transphobia are still strong. In Serbia, gay prides have been banned for several years in a row, arguing that their refusal could lead to outbreaks of violence. In 2014, prides were resumed, but under heavy guard.
Article 62 of the current Constitution of Serbia states that marriage is considered only a union of a man and a woman. However, no law stipulates the so-called civil unions and any forms of home partnership. In recent years, Serbian politicians have proposed extending the rights for people in such unions - for example, to give partners the right to visit each other in the hospital. But more often such initiatives come with a proviso: no one is going to change the constitution to legitimize gay marriage (the rare exception was the leader of the Social Democrats and the former Serbian President Boris Tadic, who in 2015 supported projects for legalizing same-sex marriage and granting the right to homosexual parents to adopt children).
Therefore, when, in June 2017, Aleksandar Vucic, who had recently won a convincing victory in the presidential elections, announced the appointment of Brnabic to the post of prime minister of Serbia, his choice surprised many people both inside and outside the country. Some Serbian public figures expressed open disapproval of Vucic’s choice. However, it cannot be said that the newly-elected president took a great risk: after the Progressive Party led by him gained a majority in parliament, he became the most powerful politician in the country's recent history. Some commentators even believe that Serbia has entered the "Vucic era".
There is an opinion that the appointment of an open lesbian for the post of prime minister gave Vucic a trump card in negotiations with the European Union, the course for rapprochement with which became the main point of the program of foreign policy proclaimed by him. The Russian official press said that the president had staked on a "pro-Western candidate," who had worked with American consulting for many years and also did not hide the "unconventional orientation." However, Vucic himself almost did not focus on the sexual preferences of his protégé.
So the more prosaic version looks more believable. Brnabic, who received the first big appointment only in 2016 (with the submission of Vucic, who was the prime minister at that time, she headed the Ministry of State and Local Self-Government), does not belong to any of the Serb parties, and therefore is convenient as a co-pilot who is not will challenge the leadership of the first.
The Brnabic relationship with the Serbian LGBT community is strained. She prefers to distance herself from the community.
“She’s capable and smart, but she’s going to be a weak prime minister,” said Balkan columnist Milan Nich right after Brnabić’s appointment. “Vucic is a strong leader, and he just needs someone to rule the government instead.” “This is not her government - this is the Vucic government, there is no doubt about it,” agreed analyst Dragan Popovic, pointing out that there were quite a few anti-Westerners among the ministers at Bnnabic who had migrated from the previous government — the Vucic government. would play up to both sides. The West says: "See what I am going to be progressive." And at the same time it sends a signal to Russia so that they don’t worry. "
Perhaps herself Brnabic, an ex-business woman who was educated at the University of Northwood in Michigan and an MBA degree at the University of Hull in Britain, does not consider herself a puppet politician. But for the year and a half that she spent in her current post, she did not do anything to refute this opinion - it seems that the work “in unison” with the president is more than enough.
Equally wary - if not to say stressful - the relationship of Brnabic with the Serbian LGBT community. In 2017, she took part in a gay pride held in Belgrade, but most often she prefers to distance herself from the community. “I’m not their speaker,” Brnabic said immediately after being appointed prime minister, “I don’t want to be called a gay minister, just as my colleagues don’t want to be called heterosexual ministers. I just want to do my job.” .
The LGBT community is also not happy with the work of Brnabic and believes that it pays too little attention to the struggle for their rights. Brnabic ignores the claims of activists, saying that now in Serbia there are much more pressing social issues - such as education reform and digitalization of the country, which should help the government in fighting corruption. But her arguments do not convince everyone. “We have only one thing in common - we are both lesbians,” said activist Zoya Gudovich in 2017. However, less demanding analysts believe that the very presence of an open lesbian in power is a rather serious breakthrough for Serbian society. At least because the birth of a child in a same-sex Serbian family turns out to be official news.
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