After a leaderless student-led protest movement swept Serbia’s former President Aleksandar Vucic from power in a historic snap election on Sunday, the country is waiting to hear who it will appoint as prime minister and to other key ministerial positions as it forms a government.
However, some of his policies do not represent a sharp departure from some of Vucic’s. He stressed the Student List position that Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, remains an integral part of the country. The step into politics is the latest chapter in a life that has gripped the basketball-mad nation – from capturing back-to-back FIBA World Championship gold medals in 1998 and 2002 and leading the then Yugoslav team to an Olympic silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games to entering senior sports administration upon his retirement as a player in 2007 and being appointed as EuroLeague president in 2022.
He also said that European Union integration is not a current priority and that the immediate focus for the incoming administration must remain on domestic anti-corruption reforms and national “existential survival”.
He has for years been a vocal opponent of Vucic’s government. Soskic, who was an avid biker in his youth but has mellowed into a softly spoken reformer, has frequently criticised the country’s institutional weaknesses under Vucic. Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party have repeatedly denied accusations of corruption.
Dejan Soskic, an economist and professor at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Economics, served as governor of the central bank between 2010 and 2012, before resigning in protest at legislative amendments that he argued compromised the institution’s independence. In 2021, he said, without offering evidence, that systemic corruption in the Balkan state was more widespread than in neighbouring countries and that it was deterring domestic and foreign direct investment. Saicic joined the student-led anti-corruption protests that followed the 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad. He became a target for pro-government tabloids after signing a petition with 24 other academics demanding Vucic’s resignation, and in May 2026 he walked out of a SANU gallery exhibition to protest an appearance by Nikola Selakovic, the minister of culture.
Pro-government media have criticised Soskic’s central bank record, accusing him of triggering the depreciation of the dinar during his tenure. Soskic has defended the depreciation as a reflection of the mandatory monetary policies of the time rather than a personal failure.
