Aleksandar Vulin ( sr-cyr, Александар Вулин; born 2 October 1972) is a Serbian politician and lawyer serving as the director of the

Security Intelligence Agency The Security Intelligence Agency ('' sr, Безбедносно-информативна агенција / Bezbednosno-informativna agencija''; abbr. ''BIA'') is a national intelligence agency of Serbia. The agency is responsible for collecting, r ...

(BIA) since 1 December 2022. Additionally, he previously served as director of the

Office for Kosovo and Metohija The Office for Kosovo and Metohija ( sr, Канцеларија за Косово и Метохију, Kancelarija za Kosovo i Metohiju) is a coordination body of the Government of Serbia. It was constituted on 2 August 2012 after the dissolution ...

from 2012 to 2013,

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet ...

in charge of Kosovo and Metohija from 2013 to 2014, minister of labour, employment, veteran and social policy from 2014 to 2017, minister of defence from 2017 to 2020, and as minister of internal affairs from 2020 to 2022 Vulin is the founder and former president of the

Movement of Socialists The Movement of Socialists ( sr, Покрет социјалиста, Pokret socijalista, PS) is a political party in Serbia. It was founded in 2008 by Aleksandar Vulin, who served as the party's president until 2022, when he was succeeded by ...

(PS), a

left-wing nationalist Left-wing nationalism or leftist nationalism, also known as social nationalism, is a form of nationalism based upon national self-determination, popular sovereignty, national self-interest, and left-wing political positions such as social eq ...

political party. He headed the party from 2008 to 2022. Vulin was a deputy of

Mirjana Marković Mirjana "Mira" Marković ( sr-cyr, Мирјана "Мира" Марковић, ; 10 July 1942 – 14 April 2019) was a Serbian politician, academic and the wife of Yugoslav and Serbian president Slobodan Milošević. She was the leader of the ...

, the wife of

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...

, and served as a high-ranking member of

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...

League of Communists – Movement for Yugoslavia League of Communists – Movement for Yugoslavia ( sr-cyr, Савез комунита - Покрет за Југославију, Savez komunista - Pokret za Jugoslaviju; abbr. СК-ПЈ, SK-PJ) was a political party formed by members of the Yug ...

(SK–PJ) and

Yugoslav Left The Yugoslav Left ( sr, Југословенска Левица, Jugoslovenska Levica; abbr. ЈУЛ, JUL) was a far-left political party in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. At its peak, the party had 20 seats in Republic of Serbia's National As ...

(JUL) parties, while in the 2000s, he was a member of the

Socialist Party of Serbia The Socialist Party of Serbia ( sr, Социјалистичка партија Србије, Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS) is a political party in Serbia. It is led by Ivica Dačić. It was founded in 1990 as the direct successor to ...

(SPS) before forming PS.

Early years

He was born in

Lozovik Lozovik is a small town in the municipality of Velika Plana, Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeast ...

, to

Bosnian Serb The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби у Босни и Херцеговини, Srbi u Bosni i Hercegovini) are one of the three constitutive nations (state-forming nations) of the country, predominantly residing in the politi ...

parents. He finished primary school in

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the P ...

, Grammar's School in

Sremski Karlovci Sremski Karlovci ( sr-cyrl, Сремски Карловци, ; hu, Karlóca; tr, Karlofça) is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is situated on the banks of the Danu ...

and later graduated from the University of Kragujevac Faculty of Law. He stated that ever since his childhood "he has always been a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

". Vulin began his political career during the high school days in Novi Sad by supporting the anti-bureaucratic revolution led by

between 1986 and 1989.

Political career

During the collapse of the communist Yugoslavia in 1990, Vulin joined the

, the so-called "army party" led by general

Stevan Mirković Stevan Mirković ( sr-cyr, Стеван Мирковић; 27 October 1927 – 26 September 2015) was a Serb general of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). Biography In 1944, during World War II in Yugoslavia, Mirković joined both the Yugoslav Part ...

. Vulin became a general secretary. In 1994, he was one of the founders of the

, a party led by

, the wife of Slobodan Milošević. In the new party, Vulin became a leader of the Revolutionary Youth, the party's youth organisation. He left the Yugoslav Left when it joined with the Milošević's

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

to the coalition with the

Vojislav Šešelj Vojislav Šešelj ( sr-Cyrl, Војислав Шешељ, ; born 11 October 1954) is a Serbian politician, founder and president of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS); he was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal ...

Serbian Radical Party The Serbian Radical Party ( sr-cyrl, Српска радикална странка, Srpska radikalna stranka, ''SRS'') is an ultranationalist political party in Serbia. It was founded in 1991, and its founder and current leader is Vojislav � ...

in 1998. Later he founded the Democratic Left, and then the

in August 2008. In 2012, following the

2012 Serbian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 6 May 2012 to elect members of the National Assembly, and were held simultaneously with provincial, local, and presidential elections. Background The 2008 parliamentary elections resulted in the ...

after which

Serbian Progressive Party The Serbian Progressive Party ( sr-cyrl, Српска напредна странка, Srpska napredna stranka, SNS) has been the ruling political party of Serbia since 2012. Founded by Tomislav Nikolić and Aleksandar Vučić in 2008 as a ...

-led coalition took power, which consisted of Vulin's Movement of Socialists, Vulin was named the director of newly established

. He stayed on the position until 2 September 2013 when he became the

Minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet ...

in charge of

Kosovo and Metohija The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija ( sr, Косово и Метохиja, Kosovo i Metohija; sq, Kosova dhe Metohija), commonly known as Kosovo and abbreviated to Kosmet or KiM, is an autonomous province defined by the constitut ...

. Following the

2014 Serbian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 16 March 2014, with nineteen electoral lists competing for 250 members of the National Assembly. The election was called early, after tensions in the coalition led by the ruling Serbian Progressive ...

, leader of the Serbian Progressive Party

Aleksandar Vučić Aleksandar Vučić ( sr-Cyrl, Александар Вучић, ; born 5 March 1970) is a Serbian politician serving as the president of Serbia since 2017, and as the president of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) since 2012. Vučić serv ...

formed the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

on 27 April 2014 with Vulin being named the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy. He kept the office after the

2016 Serbian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 24 April 2016. Initially, the election were originally due to be held by March 2018, but on 17 January 2016 Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić called for a snap election claiming Serbia "needs four ...

, in the

second cabinet of Aleksandar Vučić The Government of Serbia, the second one led by Prime Minister of Serbia, prime minister Aleksandar Vučić, was elected on 11 August 2016 by a majority vote in the National Assembly of Serbia, National Assembly. Serbian parliamentary election, 20 ...

. During his time in the office as Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, he was known for his often and fierce criticism directed towards

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, as well as occasional insulting of

Croatian politicians Croatian may refer to: *Croatia * Croatian language * Croatian people *Croatians (demonym) See also * * * Croatan (disambiguation) * Croatia (disambiguation) * Croatoan (disambiguation) * Hrvatski (disambiguation) * Hrvatsko (disambiguation) * ...

and officials. In June 2017, Aleksandar Vučić gave mandate to

Ana Brnabić Ana Brnabić ( sr-cyr, Ана Брнабић, ; born 28 September 1975) is a Serbian politician serving as the prime minister of Serbia since 2017. She is the first woman and first openly gay person to hold the office. She entered government a ...

to form the governmental cabinet. On 29 June 2017, the cabinet of Ana Brnabić was formed, with Vulin swapping minister positions with Zoran Đorđević to become the Minister of Defence. On April 21, 2018, Vulin was proclaimed ''

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...

'' in the Republic of Croatia after saying: "only the Supreme Commander of the Serbian Army – Aleksandar Vučić – can decide about me entering in Croatia, not Croatian ministers." In 2020, he was awarded

Order of the Flag of Republika Srpska The Order of the Flag of Republika Srpska ( sr, Орден заставе Републике Српске) is an Order of the Republic of Srpska. It was established in 1993 by the Constitution of Republika Srpska and 'Law on orders and awards' v ...

. On 27 June 2020, Vulin tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

. In June 2021, Vulin spoke positive of Serbian

irredentist Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent sta ...

idea of

Greater Serbia The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia ( sr, Велика Србија, Velika Srbija) describes the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology of the creation of a Serb state which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to ...

by saying: "Greater Serbia never happened, otherwise we he Serbs">Serbs.html" ;"title="he Serbs">he Serbswould know where we live and which ethnic spaces belong to us".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vulin, Aleksandar 1972 births Living people Politicians from Novi Sad Serbian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Serbian people of Romani descent League of Communists – Movement for Yugoslavia politicians Yugoslav Left politicians Movement of Socialists politicians Government ministers of Serbia Interior ministers of Serbia University of Kragujevac alumni Defence ministers of Serbia Serbian nationalists