Ivica Dačić

Ivica Dačić (Ивица Дачић, ; born 1 January 1966) is a Serbian politician serving as first deputy prime minister of Serbia and minister of foreign affairs since 2022, roles which he previously served under governments of Mirko Cvetković, Aleksandar Vučić, and Ana Brnabić.

Dačić was born on 1 January 1966 in Prizren, which at the time was part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia within Yugoslavia.

Dačić was born to a Serbian family and was brought up in Žitorađa.

His father, Desimir, was a police officer, and his mother, Jelisaveta ("Jela"), was a housewife.

His parents were both born in villages under the Jastrebac.

When Ivica was six months old, the family moved to Žitorađa.

He has a sister, Emica.

At the age of 5, he was featured in the newspapers in the article "Enciklopedija u kratkim pantalonama" (Encyclopaedia in shorts) as he had learnt to read and write himself, knew the names of many mountains, rivers and capitals, nearly all notable football players and results of matches.

His childhood nickname was Bucko and his classmates at secondary school in Žitorađa described him as very intelligent for his age - he reportedly managed to often amaze his teachers with his knowledge and wit.

He played handball and football and associated with everyone at his school.

In the state-run history-contest named "Tito, revolucija, mir", which was held in all republics, Dačić won over 600 others.

The family was described as humble and not wealthy, and as they lived off one paycheck, the parents picked mushrooms and dog rose in order to send Ivica and his sister to school.

Dačić graduated from the University of Belgrade in 1989 and joined SPS in 1991.

He went to high school in Niš, where he excelled with the highest grades (5), and graduated from the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Political Sciences, with a degree in journalism in 1989, with a highest medium grade of 10, and also won the award for the best student of scientific achievements.

His sister Emica has degrees in pedagogy and drama.

He was in the faculty organisation Association of Communists, and in 1990 he was elected the first president of the Young Socialists of Belgrade.

At the beginning of the 1990s, he was an editor for the short-lived newspapers of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), "Epoha".

In the mid-1990s, Milošević's wife Mirjana Marković moved Dačić to a small office in a Belgrade suburb in order to curb his growing ambitions.

He became a member of SPS in the middle of 1991.

He quickly rose up the ranks of the party, becoming its spokesman in 1992, under his mentor, Slobodan Milosević, President of Serbia and FR Yugoslavia.

He was the head of the Information and Propaganda staff of the SPS during the elections in 1992 and 1993, and then a minister of the Citizens' council in the first assembly of Yugoslavia, and member of the Executive Committee of the Main Board (IO GO) and Vice-President of the Council for Information and Propaganda of the SPS.

He was appointed member of IO GO on the second congress of SPS on 26 October 1992, with the most won votes.

He was the spokesman of SPS for 8 years, between 1992 and 2000.

Dačić was appointed member of IO GO again in the next congress in 1996, when there were major personnel changes in the party leadership, and of 27 members of IO GO, voted in 1992, only 5 remained, including Dačić.

In 1996, Dačić was a minister in the Citizens' Council of the Assembly of Yugoslavia and President of the Committee on Public Information, and in 1997 he was member of the Committee on Foreign Relations.

In April 1999, the federal government appointed him a member of the Board of Tanjug, and in early May, as President of the Federal Council of the public institution RTV Yugoslavia.

After the fall of Milošević, he served as the minister of information in a transitional government from 2000 to 2001.

He was elected President of the Belgrade Socialists on 10 February 2000, and again on 5 December 2000 in the election conference of the City Board of SPS.

Following the Bulldozer Revolution on 5 October 2000, Milošević was arrested by Serbian police on 31 March 2001, and was eventually transferred to The Hague to be prosecuted by the ICTY.

He has been the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) since 2006.

Dačić became SPS party leader in 2006.

Like his predecessor Milošević, he is regarded as a pragmatic leader willing to change views based on circumstance and has worked to reform the party.

Dačić led SPS into a government with the Democratic Party (DS) in 2008, after which he became the first deputy prime minister and minister of internal affairs, roles which he served until 2012.

The DS–SPS government reached an EU candidate status.

The parents sold the house in Žitorađa in 2010 and moved to Prokuplje, Desimir had until some years ago driven a 1977 Fiat 500.

After the 2012 parliamentary election, SPS formed a coalition government with the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS); Dačić was elected prime minister.

The SNS–SPS government pursued the European Union to start formal negotiations for the accession of Serbia and he signed the Brussels Agreement on the normalisation of relations of governments of Serbia and Kosovo.

In 2014, he returned to being the first deputy prime minister and also became the minister of foreign affairs, roles which he served until 2020.

Dačić was elected president of the National Assembly after the 2020 parliamentary election and was succeeded by Vladimir Orlić in 2022.

Commentators described his political positions as populist and nationalist.