Damir Zobenica ( sr-cyr, Дамир Зобеница; born 15 April 1981) is a politician in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

. He has served in the Assembly of Vojvodina since 2012 and has been a vice-president (i.e., deputy chair) of the assembly since 2016. Zobenica is a member of the

Serbian Progressive Party The Serbian Progressive Party ( sr-cyrl, Српска напредна странка, Srpska napredna stranka, SNS) has been the ruling political party of Serbia since 2012. Founded by Tomislav Nikolić and Aleksandar Vučić in 2008 as a s ...

Early life and career

Zobenica was born in

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

, in what was then the

Socialist Republic of Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Social ...

in the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

. He completed grammar school in

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...

and graduated from the

University of Novi Sad The University of Novi Sad ( sr, Универзитет у Новом Саду, Univerzitet u Novom Sadu; hu, Újvidéki Egyetem) is a List of universities in Serbia, public university in Novi Sad, Serbia. Alongside nationally prestigious Unive ...

Faculty of Philosophy in 2008 with a sociology degree.

Politician

Zobenica joined the Progressive Party upon its founding in 2008. The following year, he was elected as the president of its local board in

Sremska Kamenica Sremska Kamenica (Serbian Cyrillic: ''Сремска Каменица'', ) is a town and urban neighborhood of Novi Sad, in Serbia. Name In Serbian, the town is known as ''Sremska Kamenica'' (Сремска Каменица), in Croatian ...

. He received the seventh position on the Progressive Party's

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

for the Novi Sad municipal assembly in the

2012 Serbian local elections Local elections in Serbia were held on 6 May 2012. Pursuant to the Constitution of Serbia, the parliamentary Speaker (at the time Slavica Đukić Dejanović from SPS) signed on 13 March 2012 the Decision on calling the elections for councilors of ...

and was elected when the list won fifteen mandates. The

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

and its allies initially formed a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

at the municipal level in Novi Sad, and Zobenica served as a member of the

opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...

. The Progressives and their allies formed a new administration in October 2012 following a shift in local alliances, and he served as advisor to the mayor between 2012 and 2016.

Member of the provincial assembly

Zobenica was elected to his first term in the Vojvodina assembly in the 2012 provincial election, winning Novi Sad's first constituency seat. The election was won by the Democratic Party and its allies, and the Progressives served in opposition for the next four years. Vojvodina switched to a system of full

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

for the 2016 provincial election, and Zobenica was given the third position on the Progressive Party's list. This was

tantamount to election A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinati ...

, and he was indeed re-elected when the list won a majority victory with sixty-three out of 120 mandates. He was chosen as a vice-president of the assembly following the election and held this role for the next four years. Zobenica also became active with the

Assembly of European Regions The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is the largest independent network of regions in wider Europe. Bringing together regions from 35 countries and 15 interregional organisations, AER is a forum for interregional cooperation. Histori ...

during this time, serving as vice-president of Committee 1 (dealing with economic and regional economic cooperation issues) in 2016–17. He subsequently became vice-president of the assembly in charge of diplomacy and

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

cooperation in 2017–19 and vice-president in charge of regional economic development beginning in 2019. He was given the second position on the Progressive Party's list in the 2020 provincial election and was elected to a third term when the list won an increased majority with seventy-six seats. He was confirmed for another term as vice-president of the assembly after the election, and he serves as a member of the committee on

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

integration and interregional cooperation and the committee on administrative and mandatory issues. He has also continued to participate in Serbia's delegation to the Assembly of European Regions."Pastor i Zobenica na Generalnoj Skupštini AER"
''Radio Television of Vojvodina'', 19 November 2020, accessed 5 January 2021.

Electoral Record

Provincial (
Vojvodina Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
)

References