Dragan Marković ( sr-cyr, Драган Марковић; born 2 May 1960), commonly known as Palma ("

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

"), is a Serbian businessman, politician and entrepreneur. He currently serves as a member of the

National Assembly of Serbia The National Assembly ( sr-cyr, Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, ) is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are proportionally elected to four-year terms by secret ballot. The a ...

and is a founder and the party leader of

United Serbia United Serbia ( sr, Јединствена Србија, Jedinstvena Srbija, JS) is a national-conservative political party in Serbia. History It was founded on 15 February 2004, as a split from the far-right Party of Serbian Unity with Dragan ...

(''Jedinstvena Srbija''). He was the mayor of

Jagodina ) , image_shield = Jagodina-grb.png , image_flag = FLAG Jagodina.png , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = File:Municipalities of Serbia Jagodina.png , map_caption = Location of Jagodina w ...

from 2004 until 2012. In February 2001, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in the first post-Milošević

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

of Serbia.

Controversies

Due to public statements against the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

population, Markovic was sentenced by the First Basic Court in Belgrade in November 2011 for "severe discrimination", defined as "inciting and inciting inequality, hatred and intolerance based on sexual orientation". On 19 April 2021, vice president of the

Party of Freedom And Justice The Party of Freedom and Justice ( sr, Странка слободе и правде, Stranka slobode i pravde, SSP) is a social-democratic political party in Serbia. It is led by Dragan Đilas. It was founded in April 2019 after a merger of t ...

Marinika Tepić Marinika Tepić (; sr-Cyrl, Мариника Тепић, ; born 8 August 1974) is a Serbian politician. She is a vice-president of the Party of Freedom and Justice (''Stranka slobode i pravde'', SSP) and a prominent figure in the opposition to ...

, accused Palma and his partners for "prostitution of women and girls" in Jagodina. Tepić also revealed a video of the testimony of an anonymous man who is informed of the prostitution case. In the video he explained how everything was organized, who knew everything about cheating minors and which government members attended parties where prostitution was happening, claiming that all of this was happening in Hotel Končarevo whose "real owner" is Palma. Palma responded to these claims by calling them "lies" and announced that he will sue Tepić. Prosecutors announced that they would investigate the claims. On 23 April 2021, rector of the

Megatrend University Megatrend University ( sr, Универзитет Мегатренд, Univerzitet Megatrend) is a private university located in New Belgrade, the city of Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded in 1989 as the Megatrend Business School, which later became ...

, Mića Jovanović, stated that he was a present at a party where Palma "prostituted girls between the ages of 18 and 20 to state and municipal officials".

References

External links

DRAGAN D. MARKOVIC
National Assembly of Serbia Living people Politicians from Jagodina United Serbia politicians 1960 births Mayors of places in Serbia Members of the National Assembly (Serbia) {{Serbia-politician-stub