Maja Gojković

Maja Gojković (Serbian Cyrillic: Маја Гојковић; born 22 May 1963) is a Serbian politician and current President of the National Assembly of Serbia.[1] She served as minister without portfolio and Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia under the Slobodan Milošević regime.

Maja Gojković
14th President of the National Assembly of Serbia
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 April 2014
President	Tomislav Nikolić Aleksandar Vučić
Preceded by	Nebojša Stefanović
70th Mayor of Novi Sad
In office 5 October 2004 – 16 June 2008
Preceded by	Borislav Novaković
Succeeded by	Igor Pavličić
Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
In office 12 August 1999 – 4 November 2000
President	Slobodan Milošević
Prime Minister	Momir Bulatović
Preceded by	Vuk Drašković
Succeeded by	Miroljub Labus
Minister without portfolio
In office 24 March 1998 – 11 November 1999
President	Milan Milutinović
Prime Minister	Mirko Marjanović
Personal details
Born	(1963-05-22) 22 May 1963 Novi Sad, Yugoslavia
Nationality	Serbian
Political party	Serbian Progressive Party (2012–present)
Other political affiliations	United Regions of Serbia (2010–2012) People's Party (2008–2012) Serbian Radical Party (1991–2008) People's Radical Party (1990–1991)
Profession	Lawyer

Maja Gojković and Bogdan Borusewicz in National Assembly of Serbia (2014)

She previously served as Mayor of the city of Novi Sad, capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, in Serbia and a councillor in the Parliament of Novi Sad as a representative of the People's Party, previously also known as the "Grupa građana - Maja Gojković". She was one of the leaders of the United Regions of Serbia.

For having supporting a coalition with Boris Tadić and his Democratic Party independently of the People's Party, she and other such members were expelled from the URS.

The party is now defunct and she is a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.

Education

She attended Branko Radičević elementary school and the Gymnasium Jovan Jovanović Zmaj. After getting her degree from the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Law in 1987, she passed the bar exam in 1989. A year later she started working in her family's law firm "Gojković".

Political career

Gojković is one of the founders of Serbian Radical Party, first holding the position of secretary general, then vice president of executive council and finally she was vice president of the party. She was Vojislav Šešelj's legal adviser before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. However, she left the party in 2006 after disagreement with party leadership.

Maja Gojković has been a representative in the parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia since 1992. From 1996 until 2000 she was a member of Vojvodina parliament. In 1998 and 1999 she was a non-portfolio minister in the Serbian Government. Gojković also served as vice chairman of the federal government of FR Yugoslavia in 1999. Before running for mayor of Novi Sad she held a place in the federal parliament of Serbia and Montenegro. She was the vice president of the Serbian Radical Party until 2006. In 2008, she formed her own party, "Grupa Građana - Maja Gojković" and ran for seats in the Local elections and resigned from the Serbian Radical Party. She got seven councillor seats in the Parliament of Novi Sad.

In the 2004 Serbian local election she was elected Mayor of Novi Sad, for the first time by popular vote, beating then mayor Borislav Novaković. She thus became the first woman to perform mayoral duties in Novi Sad's history.

Controversies

On 14 July 1995, during the Bosnian War, Gojković, who served as vice-president of Serbian Radical Party, made a statement on the Fall of Srebrenica only a few days after the start of the massacre: “We salute the rapidly action of the Army of Republika Srpska, which finally liberated Serbian Srebrenica and put an end to one of the most significant hotspot of Muslim terror”[2]

She was elected President of the National Assembly of Serbia on 23 April 2014. In 2018, Freedom House reported that Gojković conducted parliamentary proceedings in an extremely partisan way, with a huge number of interruptions and penalties handed to opposition MPs.[3] In addition, she was criticized for suggesting to MPs from ruling coalition to vote for initiatives and proposals by ringing a bell.[4][5][6]

References

1. Маја Гојковић председница Скупштине, RTS
2. Tasić, Nebojša; Mesner, Igor (11 July 2014). "Izveštavanje srbijanskih listova u vreme pada Srebrenice i Žepe, Medijski mehanizam genocida". kontrapress.com. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
3. "Nations in Transit 2018, Serbia Country Profile". Freedom House. 14 May 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
4. "Poslanici SNS-a "pogrešno" glasali za predlog opozicije". N1. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
5. "Skupština: "Zvonce" zbunilo vlast, glasali za predlog DJB". B92. 15 November 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
6. "Who Rings the Bell?" (PDF). Free European Media 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2018.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Borislav Novaković	Mayor of Novi Sad 2004–2008	Succeeded by Igor Pavličić
Preceded by Nebojša Stefanović	President of the National Assembly 2014–present	Succeeded by Incumbent