Branimir Nestorović ( sr-cyrl, Бранимир Несторовић; born 16 December 1954) is a Serbian politician, pulmonologist, conspiracy theorist, and retired university professor serving as the member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

since 6 February 2024. He is one of the representatives of the We–The Voice from the People organisation and was elected to the

and the Belgrade City Assembly in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

. In his career, he was also a paediatrician, allergist, and a professor emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade.

Early life and education

Nestorović was born on 16 December 1954 in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

PR Serbia The Socialist Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Социјалистичка Република Србија, Socijalistička Republika Srbija), previously known as the People's Republic of Serbia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / " ...

FPR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

. He graduated from the Natural-Mathematics Department of the Obrenovac Gymnasium. He completed his studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Belgrade in 1979 and gained his doctorate at the same faculty in 1985 with a dissertation in the narrow scientific field of paediatrics and allergology titled ''Pollen Allergy in Children.''

Career

Medical career

Nestorović was the head of the Department of Pulmonology and Allergology at the University Children's Hospital in Belgrade.

Academic career

In 1987, he was elected as an assistant at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade. He was re-elected in 1991, and was elected to the position of assistant professor in 1995. He became an associate professor in 2000 and was re-elected in 2009. He holds the title of full professor in the field of paediatrics and has published paediatrics textbooks.

Controversial medical stances

He gained notoriety for downplaying the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and his support for the

anti-vaccination Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine hesitancy by dissem ...

and

alternative medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...

movements. As a member of the COVID-19 crisis team, appointed by the government of Serbia, he proclaimed COVID-19 as the "funniest virus in the history of mankind". Nestorović has endorsed many conspiracy theories, such as existence of a secret cure for cancer, usage of Tesla's

death ray The death ray or death beam is a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon first theorized around the 1920s and 1930s. Around that time, notable inventors such as Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Harry Grindell Matthews, Edwin R. Scott ...

in Iraq and Serbia, and existence of "time portals" which send people to the future.

Political career

Nestorović was previously a member of the

Serbian Renewal Movement The Serbian Renewal Movement (, abbr. SPO) is a liberal and monarchist political party in Serbia. It was founded in 1990 by writer Vuk Drašković, who served as the party's president until 2024. Aleksandar Cvetković is the incumbent leader. ...

and he took part in the protests against

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...

in the 1990s. In 1999, following the formation of SPS-SPO coalition, Nestorović was the assistant to the minister of education. After the

overthrow of Slobodan Milošević The Overthrow of Slobodan Milošević began in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the general election on 24 September 2000 and culminated in the downfall of Slobodan Milošević's government on 5 October 2000. As such, it is commonly ...

in 2000, he became a member of the Democratic Party. In 2022, he publicly endorsed the

Dveri The Serbian Movement Dveri (), commonly just known as Dveri (), is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Serbia. Its current president since 2024 is Ivan Kostić, who succeeded Boško Obradović, one of the co-founders of ...

–

POKS The Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia (, abbr. POKS) is a monarchist and national-conservative political party in Serbia. It was founded in 2017 after a split within the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO). In December 2021, the ...

electoral list for the

2022 Serbian parliamentary election General elections were held in Serbia on 3 April 2022 to elect both the president of Serbia and Member of parliament, members of the National Assembly (Serbia), National Assembly. Initially, parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held in ...

. In 2023, he was one of the founders of the

right-wing populist Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right populism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics with populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti- elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establishm ...

We–The Voice from the People political organisation. He was also its ballot carrier in the 2023 parliamentary elections and the Belgrade City Assembly election. MI—GIN passed the electoral census in both elections and Nestorović was elected to the

and the Belgrade City Assembly. Following the preliminary results for the Belgrade City Assembly election, president

Aleksandar Vučić Aleksandar Vučić, (born 5 March 1970) is a Serbian politician serving as President of Serbia since 2017. A founding member of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), he previously served as President of the SNS from 2012 to 2023, Deputy Prim ...

stated that Nestorović's organisation will be the

kingmaker A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a monarchy or royal in their political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and military means to influence the ...

for Belgrade's local government. He was sworn in as MP in the National Assembly on 6 February 2024. Nestorović raised a controversy at the constitutive session of the National Assembly by comparing the Serbia Against Violence MP's to

Gypsies {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , ...

. He later apologized to the

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

community.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nestorovic, Branimir 1954 births Living people Politicians from Belgrade 21st-century Serbian politicians Leaders of political parties in Serbia Physicians from Belgrade Members of the City Assembly of Belgrade Serbian conspiracy theorists Pulmonologists Serbian nationalists Flat Earth proponents Members of the National Assembly (Serbia) We – Voice from the People politicians We – Power of the People politicians