Ljubomir Marić (, ; born 1977) is a politician in Serbia and Kosovo. He was minister of administration and local government in the government of Kosovo from 2014 to 2016 as a representative of the Serb List. He was later elected to the National Assembly of Serbia in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election. Marić is a member of the Serbian Progressive Party.
Private life Marić was born in 1977 in Knin, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Croatia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.LJUBOMIR MARIĆ, Otvoreni Parlament, accessed 25 December 2020. When he was eighteen years old in 1995, he and his family fled Knin during Operation Storm and settled in Kosovska Mitrovica in Kosovo and Metohija. He has a master's degree in management."Ko je sve na listi SNS za republičke poslanike?", Danas, 6 March 2020, accessed 30 June 2020.
Government minister in Kosovo The Serb List entered Kosovo's coalition government following the 2013 Brussels Agreement, which normalized some relations between the governments of Serbia and Kosovo without resolving the status of the territory. Marić was appointed as one of two Serb List representatives in government in 2014, serving as minister of administration and local self-government. He took part in the continuing negotiations in Brussels, which focused on the planned establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities (Zajednica srpskih opština, ZSO) among other matters."Zajednica srpskih opština jedna od glavnih tema u Briselu", N1, 12 January 2015, accessed 17 July 2020. In a May 2015 interview, he said that the ZSO was necessary for the survival of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. He added that there had been no will to create the ZSO prior to the formation of Isa Mustafa's administration and that the involvement of the Serb List in government had precipitated the change."Marić: ZSO ključna za opstanak Srba", N1, 5 May 2015, accessed 17 July 2020. (The establishment of the ZSO was subsequently postponed, and as of 2020 it has still not occurred.)
Marić was a frequent spokesperson for the Serb community in Kosovo during his time in government. In February 2016, he indicated that the community would put forward its own candidate in the 2016 Kosovan presidential election to pursue the formation of the ZSO."Marić: Srbi će imati svog kandidata za predsednika Kosova", N1, 9 February 2016, accessed 17 July 2020. He later said that Serb delegates would not take part in local committee discussions as to the status of the Trepča Mines, saying that the question should be resolved in Brussels."Marić: Srbi neće učestvovati u komisiji za vlasništvo Trepče", N1, 19 March 2016, accessed 17 July 2020.
Marić was dismissed from government on 16 December 2016 and replaced with another representative of the Serb community."Isa Mustafa smenio Ljubomira Marića s mesta ministra", N1, 16 December 2016, accessed 17 July 2020. This decision was condemned by the Progressive Party, which blamed manoeuvring by local members of the Movement of Socialists on the Serb List.Maja Nikolić, "Ministarsko mesto na Kosovu razdvojilo Vulinov PS od SNS", 22 December 2016, accessed 17 July 2020. (This did not ultimately affect the alliance between the Progressives and the Movement of Socialists in the government of Serbia.) Prime Minister Mustafa defended the decision, saying he did not have confidence in Marić as a minister and accusing Marić of making statements contrary to government policy."Mustafa: Ne kajem se zbog smene Marića", N1, 28 December 2016, accessed 17 July 2020."Marić smenjen zbog izjava, Mustafa preti i ostalim Srbima", Blic, 26 December 2016, accessed 17 July 2020.
On 14 March 2017, the government of Serbia appointed Marić as assistant director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija. In this capacity, he continued to have oversight in the process of establishing the ZSO."Ljubomir Marić pomoćnik direktora Kancelarije za KiM", Blic (Source: Tanjug), 14 March 2017, accessed 17 July 2020. Following the 2017 Kosovan parliamentary election, he complained to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that some Serbs had been denied the franchise."Marić: Velikom broju Srba uskraćeno pravo da biraju svoje predstavnike", Blic (Source: Beta), 7 July 2017, accessed 17 July 2020.
Member of the National Assembly of Serbia Marić received the fifty-second position on the Progressive Party's Aleksandar Vučić — For Our Children electoral list in the 2020 parliamentary election"Ko je sve na listi SNS za republičke poslanike?", Danas, 6 March 2020, accessed 30 June 2020. and was elected when the list won a landslide victory with 188 mandates. He is a member of the assembly committee on Kosovo-Metohija, a deputy member of the culture and information committee, the leader of Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with the Central African Republic, and a member the friendship groups with Australia, the Bahamas, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, Comoros, Croatia, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Ireland, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Nauru, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, the Philippines, Portugal, the Republic of Congo, Russia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Uruguay, and Uzbekistan.LjUBOMIR MARIC, National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, accessed 25 December 2020.
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