Serbia To Have First Openly Gay Minister

“Her personal choices do not interest me, she is welcome in the Serbian government”, Vucic told reporters when asked about Brnabic’s sexuality.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić has appointed an openly gay politician to his cabinet, in a historic first in the conservative country.

“If you can tell me something bad about her professional resume, tell me”, he concluded.

Brnabic, who studied in Britain, has worked as the head of NALED Serbia, the National Alliance for Local Economic Development, a public-private association that aims to improve the business environment.

Vucic said he is “only interested in her results” and added that he is looking forward to working with her.

Prime Minister-designate Aleksandar Vucic, a former extremist-turned reformist, has promised to boost gay rights as part of efforts to move closer to European Union membership. “The decision by Ms. Brnabic to openly declare herself (as gay) is encouraging and good”. 150 people were injured when hard-line nationalists attacked a gay pride parade in Belgrade in 2010, prompting the government to ban the parade for three years.

She spoke shortly before the start of the Parliament session on approving the new government. I’m only interested in what her result will be in the hard job ahead of her.

While she’ll enter this new position with the full support of Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), it’s unclear how the overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian population will react to the news.

Brnabic said that her job description would be to carry out complicated restructuring of Serbia’s overblown public administration and local governments as part of pro-EU reform.

The government is expected to be confirmed later this week, more than three months after the April 24 elections.