The new Prime Minister of Serbia will be Professor Dr. Đuro Macut, announced Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
The election of Macut as prime minister-designate was preceded by weeks of speculation about potential candidates: it was claimed that there was a choice between two candidates, the possibility of a prime minister from the diaspora was mentioned, the names of some former ministers were also circulated, but in the end the choice fell on a doctor.
Đuro Macut, endocrinologist, graduated, received his master's and doctoral degrees from the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade, where he is a full professor. He is the Deputy Director of the Clinic for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at the University Clinical Center.
According to published information, he is a world-renowned expert on polycystic ovary syndrome. He is a member of the Executive Board of the European Endocrinological Society and a visiting professor at the universities of Athens and Skopje.
Continuity of the crisis
There was also speculation that the regime might decide to hold early elections if there was no new government. However, the atmosphere in the country, the great resistance of citizens, and the loud warnings of the opposition that there would be no elections under the same conditions, still led to the name of a new prime minister.
The future prime minister, whose government must be elected by April 18, faces difficult tasks. His choice is all the more strange because he is a physician with virtually no political experience.
Đuro Macut is one of the members of the initiative committee of Vučić's "Movement for the People and the State", and it is recorded that he was also one of the visitors to Pioneer Park, where he addressed "students who want to learn".
That is why one of the initiators of ProGlas, writer and publisher Gojko Božović, believes that the election of Macut is just a continuation of the "government of continuity".
"Continuity with this government is continuity of the crisis. The same solutions cannot be used to reach a solution. The government has simply decided to deepen the crisis instead of resolving it and meeting the demands of the rebel society," Božović told DW.
The crisis is solved by a change in policy.
In a personal sense, he is a man who has been part of the regime's propaganda campaigns in recent months, our interlocutor continues, listing: Macut spoke at the regime's counter-rally in Jagodina and is one of the initiators of Vučić's movement.
"This suggests that this is a figure from the orbit of the Serbian Progressive Party. The crisis in Serbia cannot be solved by changing candidates or one prime minister with another, it can only be solved by changing policies," says Božović.
"If there is an insistence on the same personnel base, on the same political solutions, and a persistent refusal to engage in dialogue, this can only mean even greater division in society."
The election of a doctor without any political experience in complex regional and international circumstances probably shows that the most important thing was to form some kind of government and avoid elections.
The scenario is irresistibly reminiscent of the case of former Belgrade mayor Zoran Radojičić, also a doctor, who practically disappeared from public life after retiring from running the capital.
The election of Macut, Božović believes, shows that "the leader of the regime does not need a true prime minister, but rather a chargé d'affaires."
An announcement of a more radical showdown?
In his introductory speech, Vučić spoke about the complicated situation in the region, but also about the "colored revolution", regretting that he had not reacted sooner and more sharply.
For Božović, this sounds like an "announcement of radicalization."
"Since the protests began, we have had the appearance of concessions, while on the other hand we have arrests, physical attacks, car crashes, the use of unidentified sonic weapons, which is an indicator of radicalization that is much closer to the current regime than any other form of political action."
Despite this, Aleksandar Vučić again called for dialogue in his address, but as Gojko Božović notes, "the message, and the way it was communicated, the announcement of a counter-rally on April 12, actually shows that the government is avoiding facing reality, and therefore avoiding dialogue."
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