Bratislav Gašić ( sr-Cyrl, Братислав Гашић; born 30 June 1967) is a Serbian politician serving as

minister of defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

since 2024. A member of the

Serbian Progressive Party The Serbian Progressive Party (, SNS) is a major populist, catch-all party, catch-all List of political parties in Serbia, political party in Serbia. It has been the Ruling party, ruling party since 2012. Miloš Vučević, the former prime mi ...

(SNS), he served as

minister of internal affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from 2022 to 2024,

from 2014 to 2016. He was the director of the

Security Intelligence Agency The Security Intelligence Agency (; abbr. БИА / BIA) is a national security and intelligence agency of Serbia. The agency is responsible for collecting, reporting and disseminating intelligence, and conducting counterintelligence in the interes ...

(BIA) from 2017 to 2022.

Education and career

He finished primary and secondary school in Kruševac and the Faculty of Economics within the

University of Niš The University of Niš () is a public university in Serbia. It was founded in 1965. As of the 2018-19 school year, it consists of 13 faculties with 1,492 academic staff and around 20,500 students. It has a university library "Nikola Tesla"; th ...

. From 1989, he began

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

in his native country and later worked many years in Greece. During the 1990s he worked in the coffee industry, mainly in export-import, and was one of the owners of prominent Serbian brands ''Grand coffee''. During the 2000s, he ran several sports clubs in his home city of Kruševac, volleyball and football teams.

2008–17

He is one of the founders of the

, founded in October 2008. Following the

2012 Serbian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 6 May 2012 to elect members of the National Assembly. The elections were held simultaneously with provincial, local, and presidential elections. Background The 2008 parliamentary elections result ...

s when the Serbian Progressive Party took power, he was named the vice president of the party. Later he was named the president of the executive board of

Srbijagas Srbijagas (full legal name: '' J.P. Srbijagas Novi Sad'') is the state-owned natural gas provider in Serbia with headquarters in Novi Sad. History Srbijagas was established on 1 October 2005 as a result of restructuring the integrated petroleum c ...

in March 2013. From June 2012 until April 2014 he was the mayor of Kruševac. He was elected as the

Minister of Defence of Serbia Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

on 27 April 2014 following the

2014 Serbian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia on 16 March 2014, with nineteen electoral lists competing for 250 members of the National Assembly. The election was called early, after tensions in the coalition led by the ruling Serbian Progressive ...

s. On 5 February 2016, he was sacked from the duty following the public pressure due to his

sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...

remarks towards

B92 RTV B92, or simply B92 (stylized as b92, formerly BΞ92 and B 92), is a Serbian news station and broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade. Founded in 1989 as radio station, it was a rare outlet for Western news and informati ...

TV reporter Zlatija Labović, made on 6 December 2015.

2017–2022: Head of Security Intelligence Agency

On 23 May 2017, he was appointed as the head of the

(BIA). Following his appointment, he has suspended his party activities. In August 2017, an amendments to the ''Law on the Security and Information Agency'', which strengthen the authorities of the agency's director, have arrived in the

Serbian Parliament The National Assembly ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, ), fully the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (), is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are ...

for adoption. This move was condemned by several officials including the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance

Rodoljub Šabić Rodoljub Šabić (, born 15 October 1955) is a Serbian lawyer, former Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of Serbia, as well as the First Commissioner for Information of Public Importance of Serbia from 2004 to 2018. B ...

and former co-Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia Božo Prelević. They have stated that these amendments are unconstitutional and thus way creating a platform for "party's intelligence agency" (

), aimed at the opposition and "domestic traitors" who disagree with the ruling regime.

Personal life

He is married and has three sons. He speaks English and Greek. His nickname is Bata Santos, given to him due to business with coffee.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasic, Bratislav 1967 births Defence ministers of Serbia Government ministers of Serbia Living people Politicians from Kruševac Serbian Progressive Party politicians University of Niš alumni