Andreja Mladenović () is a Serbian politician and administrator. He was the deputy mayor of Belgrade from 2014 to 2018 and was an assistant to the mayor from 2018 to 2022. In August 2022, he was appointed as director of the Belgrade Metro.
A prominent member of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) for many years, Mladenović was expelled from the party in 2015 and founded the Independent Democratic Party of Serbia (Samostalni DSS). Since 2020, he has been the leader of the Independent Serbian Party (Samostalna).
Since 2022, he has held the position of Acting Director of the Public Utility Company "Belgrade Metro and Train," which was established for the purpose of implementing and managing the metro system project in Belgrade.
Early life and private career Mladenović was born in Belgrade, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He is a graduate of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, has a master's degree from the Faculty of International Engineering Management at the European University in Belgrade, and has enrolled in doctoral studies at the latter institution."Изабрано привремено веће Београда", Radio Television of Serbia, 18 November 2013, accessed 4 September 2023.Андреја Младеновић, помоћник градоначелника, , City of Belgrade, accessed 4 September 2023.
Political career Democratic Party of Serbia City and municipal politics from 2000 to 2008 Mladenović joined the Democratic Party of Serbia in 1994.Andreja Mladenović, istinomer.rs, accessed 12 June 2024.
The DSS contested the 2000 Serbian local elections as part of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad and ideologically diverse coalition of parties opposed to Slobodan Milošević's government. The DOS won landslide victories in Belgrade and most of its constituent municipalities; in the election for the Zemun municipal assembly, it took sixty-one out of seventy seats.Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, pp. 31-32.
Mladenović was one of the DOS delegates elected at the municipal level in Zemun. When the assembly convened in October 2000, he was chosen as its vice-president (i.e., deputy speaker, a position then equivalent to deputy mayor). For the next four years, he held administrative responsibility for sports and youth, refugees and social issues, and relations with religious communities. Андреја Младеновић, помоћник градоначелника, , City of Belgrade, accessed 4 September 2023.
Mladenović appeared in the second position on the DSS's electoral list for the City Assembly of Belgrade in the 2004 local elections and was elected when the list won thirteen mandates.Službeni list (Grada Beograda), Volume 48 Number 24 (8 September 2004), p. 6.Lokalni Izbori – Republika Srbija; Lokalni Izbori 2004; Bureau of Statistics, Republic of Serbia; p. 11.Službeni list (Grada Beograda), Volume 48 Number 34 (29 November 2004), p. 2.In the 2004 local elections, the first one-third of mandates were awarded to candidates on successful lists in numerical order while the remaining two-thirds were distributed amongst other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties or coalitions. See Law on Local Elections (June 2002) , Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 33/2002; made available via LegislationOnline, , accessed 7 April 2024. The Democratic Party (DS) won the election and afterward formed a coalition government with the DSS and G17 Plus. Mladenović was appointed to city council (i.e., the executive branch of the city government) with responsibility for sports and youth, and served in this role for the next four years.Андреја Младеновић, помоћник градоначелника, , City of Belgrade, accessed 4 September 2023.Градско веће, , City of Belgrade, accessed 4 September 2023.Одборници Скупштине града, , City of Belgrade, accessed 4 September 2023.
He also received the second position on the DSS's electoral list for Zemun in 2004 and was re-elected to the municipal assembly when the list won seven seats.Službeni List (Grada Beograda), Volume 48 Number 24 (8 September 2004), p. 49.Službeni List (Grada Beograda), Volume 48 Number 28 (21 September 2004), p. 3.Službeni List (Grada Beograda), Volume 48 Number 32 (11 November 2004), p. 3. The far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS) won the election and formed a coalition government with the Strength of Serbia Movement (PSS), and the DSS served in opposition.Direktorijum lokalnih samouprava u Srbiji, Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), September 2005, pp. 88-89.
DSS spokesperson in the first Koštunica ministry Mladenović appeared in the fifty-seventh position (out of 250) on the DSS's electoral list in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election.Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 28. децембра 2003. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (3. ДЕМОКРАТСКА СТРАНКА СРБИЈЕ - ВОЈИСЛАВ КОШТУНИЦА), , Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 7 April 2024. The list won fifty-three mandates, and he was not included in the party's assembly delegation."Skupština čeka demokrate", , Glas javnosti, 13 January 2004, accessed 27 August 2023. (From 2000 to 2011, Serbian parliamentary mandates were awarded to sponsoring parties or coalitions rather than to individual candidates, and it was common practice for the mandates to be assigned out of numerical order. Mladenović could have been given a seat despite his comparatively low position on the list, but ultimately he was not.)Serbia's Law on the Election of Representatives (2000) stipulated that parliamentary mandates would be awarded to electoral lists (Article 80) that crossed the electoral threshold (Article 81), that mandates would be given to candidates appearing on the relevant lists (Article 83), and that the submitters of the lists were responsible for selecting their parliamentary delegations within ten days of the final results being published (Article 84). See Law on the Election of Representatives, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 35/2000, made available via LegislationOnline, , accessed 7 April 2024. The DSS became the dominant party in Serbia's coalition government after the election, and party leader Vojislav Koštunica became prime minister in 2004. Mladenović was appointed as the party's media spokesperson in the same year.See for instance "Serbian party official: SCG searching for solutions for cooperation with Hague," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 16 August 2004 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 0957 gmt 16 Aug 04); Jovana Gec, "Kostunica rejects coalition offer from ultranationalists," Associated Press Newswires, 24 September 2004.
In early 2005, Mladenović said that Sreten Lukić would surrender voluntarily to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague to face charges of war crimes. He added that the DSS supported the principle of voluntary surrender for ICTY indictees and opposed a policy of arrests."Serbian general reportedly prepared to surrender to Hague tribunal," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 24 January 2005 (Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1209 gmt 24 Jan 05).Matthew Holliday, "Paying the Price," Transitions Online, 27 January 2005. The following year, he criticized the European Union's pressure tactics on Serbia to surrender prominent war crimes suspects such as Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, both of whose whereabouts were unknown at the time. Mladenović said in June 2006, "What will [additional conditions on Serbia's bid for European Union membership] bring if Mladić is dead? What if he has left the country?""Serbia's prime minister criticizes EU policies toward Belgrade," Associated Press Newswires, 19 June 2006. This notwithstanding, he later said that Serbia was co-operating with the ICTY in hunting for Mladić and other suspects."Serbia doing everything possible to capture Mladic - party spokesman," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Newsfile, 21 August 2006 (Source: Radio Belgrade in Serbian 1300 gmt 21 Aug 06). He rejected suggestions that Serbia's security forces needed to be "purged" in order to ensure the capture of prominent war criminals, saying, "a serious country would never allow anyone from outside to dictate the country's most important positions. That would mean that we are not a country, but a colony."Dusan Stojanovic, "Serbian official: Security services must be purged to capture Mladic," Agence France Presse, 19 February 2007.
Serbia's national assembly observed a moment of silence for all victims of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars on 11 July 2005. Critics noted that the ceremony did not include specific reference to the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Mladenović responded, "Serbia has an interest in exposing and condemning all war crimes in the history of the former Yugoslavia, in which the Serbian people were the biggest victims.""Serbian parliament in minute's silence but ignores Srebrenica," Agence France Presse, 11 July 2005.
United Nations Special Envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari was quoted as saying in August 2006 that Serbs were culpable as a people for crimes committed in the Kosovo War. Mladenović described this statement as "scandalous, shameful, and racist.""Serbian PM's party slates UN envoy's remarks as scandalous, racist," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring Newsfile, 26 August 2006 (Source: RTS 1 TV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1400 gmt 26 Aug 06). In February 2007, he supported the protests of Kosovo Serbs against Ahtisaari's plan for a final resolution of the status of Kosovo."Kosovo Serbs to stage rallies against UN envoy's Kosovo plan," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 26 February 2007. The following month, he described a revised version of the Ahtisaari plan as "worse than the previous one," in that it fully corresponded "with the stance of the Albanian separatists.""UN envoy's amended Kosovo plan is 'worse than previous one' - Serbian PM's party," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 7 March 2007 (Source: Radio B92 text website, Belgrade, in English 1737 gmt 7 Mar 07)."Angry Serbia says Kosovo plan doomed to fail," Agence France Presse, 8 March 2007.
DSS spokesperson in the second Koštunica ministry The 2007 Serbian parliamentary election did not produce a clear winner, and the DS, DSS, and G17 Plus ultimately formed an unstable coalition government with Vojislav Koštunica continuing in the role of prime minister. Mladenović, who provided regular media updates during the negotiations for a new government,See for instance "Serbian president rejects 'sixth principle' of sharing power in new government," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 14 March 2007 (Source: Blic, Belgrade, in Serbian 13 Mar 07); "Serbia's Kostunica 'acceptable' as new PM, portfolios 'questionable' - paper," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 29 March 2007 (Source: Politika, Belgrade, in Serbian 29 Mar 07 pp 1, 7); "Serbian PM's party denies secret talks on government formation," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 20 April 2007 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1535 gmt 20 Apr 07). remained the DSS's media spokesperson, although from July 2007 he shared this responsibility with Branislav Ristivojević."Kosovo is issue of Albanian minority in Serbia - PM's party spokesman," British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring European, 9 July 2007 (Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1318 gmt 9 Jul 07).