Speaker Brnabic: Belgrade University Dean is Taking Orders from Someone Interested in Ruining Serbia

Belgrade University Rectorate (BetaPhoto/Milos Miskov)

Serbia’s Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on April 24 that Belgrade University Dean Vladan Djokic “is not making decisions independently” but rather according to instructions from someone interested in “ruining Serbia and its constitutional order.”

In a guest appearance on Pink TV, the speaker maintained that, during his initial meeting with Prime Minister Djuro Macut and Education Minister Dejan Vuk Stankovic, Djokic agreed upon concrete terms and expressed his willingness to continue the dialogue, only to later change his mind.

Brnabic commended PM Macut for demonstrating readiness to negotiate, and criticized Dean Djokic for withdrawing from the talks.

“After the meeting on [April 22] the university dean confirmed that the talks would continue. The meeting was attended by the minister of education as well. Concrete terms were agreed upon only for Djokic to suddenly change his mind the following day,” the parliament speaker said.

According to Brnabic, it was wrong of the dean to address the PM in the open letter published on April 23, just as it was wrong of Djokic to lie and claim he would miss the meeting with Macut because of a hearing at the Prosecutor’s Office.

Talks between the PM and the Belgrade University dean began on April 22 and were supposed to continue on April 23. In the meantime, however, Djokic announced he would not be able to attend the next meeting because the Belgrade’s First Basic Prosecutor’s Office had summoned him over a second criminal complaint in which student Milos Pavlovic accused Djokic of violating equity regulations.

The Prosecutor’s Office responded by claiming there was no plan or appointment scheduled to take Djokic’s statement but rather that the Office had sent a general summons to the Belgrade University Dean’s Office regarding a criminal complaint filed by student Milos Pavlovic and several other persons.