Slavica Đukić Dejanović

Slavica Đukić Dejanović (born 4 July 1951) is a Serbian politician who served as minister of education from 2023 to 2025. A long-time member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, she previously served as minister of family care in the transitional government of Milomir Minić, president of the National Assembly of Serbia from 2008 to 2012, acting president of Serbia after the resignation of Boris Tadić, minister of health from 2012 to 2014, and minister without portfolio in charge of demography and population policy from 2016 to 2020.

Dejanović is the second woman who served as president of the National Assembly, after Nataša Mićić, who served the role from 2001 to 2004, and the first one in the independent Serbia. She was also the first and to date, only woman, to hold the post of head of state of Serbia since independence in 2006.

Early life Dejanović was born on 4 July 1951 in Rača near Kragujevac, where she finished her elementary and secondary school. She graduated at the University of Belgrade School of Medicine, where she received her M.A. in 1983. and Ph.D. in 1986.

Career

Professional Dejanović has worked at the University of Kragujevac Medical School since 1982, where she was first assistant, then docent and then as of 1992 she was an assistant professor. In 1996 Dejanović became a full professor. She also served as the Director of Clinical-Hospital Center in Kragujevac from 1995 to 2001. when she was removed from management functions but she remained to work as a doctor. Dejanović is the director of the Clinic for Psychiatry in Kragujevac and vice dean of Medical School and the vice president of the Association of Psychiatrists of Serbia. She was the president of the Commission for Drugs and a member of the Governing Board of Medical research within Section of science and technology. Following the decision of President Boris Tadić to resign and seek re-election in Serbian presidential elections on 6 May 2012, Slavica Đukić Dejanović became Acting President of Serbia on 5 April 2012.

She served as minister of health from 27 July 2012 to 27 April 2014 and as minister without portfolio from 2016 to 2020.

In June 2023, she was proposed by the government of Serbia to become the minister of education after Branko Ružić's resignation.

Political positions She was previously a staunch defender of Slobodan Milošević.

She has declared herself to be supportive of the LGBT community and pride parades, even participating in the Belgrade Pride in 2016. She supports abortion rights, but has also said that "there would be even more of us if there were no abortions".

Personal life Besides Serbian, she speaks English and Russian. Her husband, Ranko Dejanović, took part in the controversial privatisation of Zastava Elektro that occurred in the 2000s and an indictment was brought against him in Kragujevac Court.