Boris Milošević is a Croatian politician and lawyer of Serb ethnicity who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia in charge of social affairs and human and minority rights since 23 July 2020. He is a member of the Independent Democratic Serb Party. He previously served as the president of the Serb National Council from July 2019 until July 2020.
Early life and career
Milošević was born to an ethnic Serb family in 1974 in Šibenik, which at that time was a part of the SFR Yugoslavia. He graduated from the University of RijekaFaculty of Law, and later enrolled in postgraduate studies in public law and administration at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Law. During the Croatian War of Independence his father was mobilized into the Croatian Army even though he was a Serb because Šibenik was under control of Croatia, unlike a lot of Serb majority areas where the Republic of Serbian Krajina had control. Milošević's grandmother was murdered in the village of Bribirske Mostine after the Operation Storm. Her murderer was arrested after bragging about "murdering a 'Chetnik'" and sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. He was, however, pardoned by the President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman after 3.5 years. From 2002 to 2005 he was an intern at the Municipal Court in Benkovac. From 2005 to 2007, he worked as a legal advisor for the Spanishhumanitarian organization, Movement for Peace, and from 2007 to 2008 he worked as the secretary of the municipality of Kistanje. After moving to Zagreb, from 2008 to 2011 he worked as a legal advisor in the Serb National Council, the most influential association of the Serb community in Croatia. He was also a member of the main board of the Center for Human Rights from 2010 to 2012.
Political career
His serious political career began in 2012 when he became the Assistant Minister of Administration and Head of the Directorate for the Political System and Local Self-Government under the minister Arsen Bauk. In the 2016 election, he was elected a Member of Parliament, and became the President of the Independent Democratic Serb Party Parliamentary Club. During his parliamentary career he was a member of the inter-parliamentarty friendship groups with Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Italy, China, Russia, Serbia and the United Kingdom. He was also the member of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights and the Rights of National Minorities and the Parliamentary Committee for Labor, Pension System and Social Partnership. He advocated the use of the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, stating that "the Cyrillic alphabet symbolizes Serbs in Croatia", and that those who say that the Cyrillic alphabet is not desirable actually want to say that Serbs are the ones who are undesirable. In July 2019, he became the president of the Serb National Council, and he came to that position after Milorad Pupovac, who led SNV for 22 years. He was elected to the Croatian Parliament following the 2020 election, in which the SDSS won all seats belonging to the Serb national minority. On 23 July 2020, Milošević was elected one of the four Deputy Prime Ministers of Croatia in charge of social affairs and human and minority rights in the new cabinet of Andrej Plenković. Due to accepting the government position he had to resign as the president of SNV. Croatian PresidentZoran Milanović reacted to Milošević becoming a Deputy Prime Minister by saying that he wishes to see Milošević in Knin at the celebration of the Victory Day, marking the anniversary of Operation Storm that brought an end to the Serb rebellion, and led to a large refugee crisis of Serb civilians, for which Milanović blames the then Belgrade government. The anniversary has for a long time been a subject of dispute between Croatia and Serbia. On 30 July, Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković announced that Milošević will be participating in the celebration of the Victory Day while the Minister of Croatian VeteransTomo Medved will be participating in the commemoration of the Grubori Massacre where six Serb civilians were killed in the aftermath of the Operation Storm. This will be the first time that any political representative of Croatian Serbs will be attending the Victory Day celebration. Milošević's decision was mostly met with positive reactions in Croatia, including the opposition parties. Political representatives of Croats of Serbia also welcomed Milošević's decision. Criticism came from the Serbian Government and Bosnian Serb politicians, who previously urged Croatian Serbs not to participate in the anniversary. Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina called Milošević's decision unacceptable, while Aleksandar Vulin, the Minister of Defence of Serbia, said that he "cannot believe that a Serb is going to celebrate the expulsion of 250,000 Serbs". President of SerbiaAleksandar Vučić later said that it was up to Serbia and Republika Srpska to say that "they did not support the presence of Serb representatives at the celebration of the Operation Storm in Knin, and that they would never stop marking the anniversaries of the 'pogrom' of Serbs from Croatia". Special envoy of the President of Serbia for resolving the issue of missing persons with Croatia, Veran Matić, said that "Milošević proved to be a very dedicated, principled and valuable advocate of the interests of Serbs in Croatia, but also the democratization of Croatia".
