Maja Gojković ( sr-Cyrl, Маја Гојковић; born 22 May 1963) is a Serbian politician who has been the president of the Government of Vojvodina 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), she previously served as president of the National Assembly from 2014 to 2020 and deputy prime minister of Serbia and minister of culture and information from 2020 until 2024. As a member of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), she served as

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is a government minister without specific responsibility as head of a government department. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authorit ...

from 1998 to 1999 and deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia from 1999 to 2000. She later became the mayor of Novi Sad, an office she served from 2004 to 2008, after which she left SRS and formed the People's Party (NP) which merged into SNS in 2012.

Education

She attended Branko Radičević elementary school and the Gymnasium Jovan Jovanović Zmaj. After getting her degree from the

University of Novi Sad Faculty of Law The University of Novi Sad Faculty of Law (), also known as the Novi Sad Law School, is a constituent body of the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. The school is located on the university campus on the bank of the Danube river in the downtown distri ...

in 1987, she passed the bar exam in 1989. A year later she started working in her family's law firm.

Political career

Gojković is one of the founders of Serbian Radical Party, first holding the position of secretary general, then vice president of executive council and finally she was vice president of the party. She was

Vojislav Šešelj Vojislav Šešelj ( sr-Cyrl, Војислав Шешељ, ; born 11 October 1954) is a Serbian politician and convicted war criminal. He is the founder and president of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS). Between 1998 and 2000, he was a D ...

's legal adviser before the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to tr ...

. On 14 July 1995, during the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

, Gojković, who served as vice-president of Serbian Radical Party, made a statement on the Fall of Srebrenica only a few days after the start of the

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

: “We salute the rapidly action of the Army of Republika Srpska, which finally liberated Serbian Srebrenica and put an end to one of the most significant hotspot of Muslim terror.” Maja Gojković has been a representative in the parliament of the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...

since 1992. From 1996 until 2000 she was a member of

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

parliament. In 1998 and 1999 she was a non-portfolio minister in the

Serbian Government The government of Serbia ( sr-cyrl, Влада Србије, Vlada Srbije), formally the Government of the Republic of Serbia ( sr-cyrl, Влада Републике Србије, Vlada Republike Srbije), commonly abbreviated to Serbian Governme ...

. Gojković also served as vice chairman of the federal government of FR Yugoslavia in 1999. Before running for mayor of

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

she held a place in the federal parliament of

Serbia and Montenegro The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...

. She was the vice president of the Serbian Radical Party until 2006. In 2008, she formed her own party, the People's Party and ran for seats in the local elections. She got seven councillor seats in the Parliament of Novi Sad. In 2010, the People's Party joined the

United Regions of Serbia The United Regions of Serbia (; abbr. УРС, URS) was a Regionalism (politics), regionalist, Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative political party in Serbia. It was founded on 16 May 2010 as a political coalition, and became a unified poli ...

(URS). For having supporting a coalition with

Boris Tadić Boris Tadić, (born 15 January 1958) is a Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia from 2004 to 2012. Born in Sarajevo, he graduated from the University of Belgrade with a degree in psychology. He later worked as a journalist ...

and his Democratic Party independently of the People's Party, she and other such members were expelled from the URS. The party is now defunct and she is a member of the ruling

. In the 2004 Serbian local election she was elected Mayor of Novi Sad, for the first time by popular vote, beating then mayor Borislav Novaković. She thus became the first woman to perform mayoral duties in Novi Sad's history. She was elected President of the National Assembly of Serbia on 23 April 2014. In 2018,

Freedom House Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...

reported that Gojković conducted parliamentary proceedings in an extremely partisan way, with a huge number of interruptions and penalties handed to opposition MPs. In addition, she was criticized for suggesting to MPs from ruling coalition to vote for initiatives and proposals by ringing a bell. On 27 June 2020, Gojković was hospitalized with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gojkovic, Maja 1963 births 20th-century Serbian lawyers Deputy prime ministers of Serbia Culture ministers of Serbia Government ministers of Serbia Living people Mayors of Novi Sad Members of the National Assembly (Serbia) People's Party (Serbia, 2008) politicians Politicians of Vojvodina Presidents of the National Assembly (Serbia) Serbian Progressive Party politicians Serbian Radical Party politicians Serbian women lawyers University of Novi Sad alumni Women government ministers of Serbia Women mayors of places in Serbia Women members of the National Assembly (Serbia) 20th-century women lawyers