Vladimir Orlić (Serbian Cyrillic: Владимир Орлић; born 15 April 1983) is a Serbian politician. He served five terms in Serbia's national assembly between 2014 and 2024 and was its president (i.e., speaker) from August 2022 to February 2024.[1] Since 12 June 2024, he has served as director of Serbia's Security Intelligence Agency (BIA).
He is a member of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and has been one of its vice-presidents since 2021. Orlić is known for insulting political opponents and his harsh rhetoric.[2][3]
Orlić joined the Progressive Party on its formation in 2008 and became a member of its presidency in 2017. He was elected as one of its vice-presidents in November 2021.[5][6]
He was given the seventy-fourth position on the SNS list in the 2014 Belgrade election.[8] The Progressive Party and its allies won a majority victory with sixty-three out of 110 seats; Orlić was not initially elected but received a mandate on 8 September 2016 as the replacement for another party member.[9] He was promoted to the thirtieth position in the 2018 city election and was re-elected when the Progressives and their allies won a second majority victory with sixty-four seats.[10] He was not a candidate in the 2022 city election.
Orlić also received the fifth position on the Progressive Party's list for the Čukarica municipal assembly in the 2016 Serbian municipal elections[11] and was elected when the list won twenty-one seats.[12] He resigned his seat on 3 June 2016.[13]
Parliamentarian
First three terms (2014–22)
Orlić appeared in the eighty-third position on the Progressive Party's Future We Believe In list for the 2014 parliamentary election and was elected when the list won a landslide victory with 158 out of 250 mandates.[14] In his first term, he was a member of the spatial planning committee[a] and the education committee,[b] a deputy member of the European integration committee, the head of Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with Argentina, and a member of the friendship groups with the Arab Gulf States, South Africa, and the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.[15]
Orlić was promoted to the forty-fourth position on the SNS list for the 2016 parliamentary election and was re-elected when the party and its allies won a second consecutive majority with 131 seats.[16] He was deputy leader of the SNS parliamentary group in the 2016–20 term, served on the spatial planning and education committees, chaired the European Union–Serbia stabilization and association committee, was a member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE PA), led Serbia's parliamentary friendship groups with Argentina, North Korea, and South Africa, and was a member of the friendship groups with China, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Israel, Russia, the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, and the United States of America.[17]
He received the thirty-first position on the Progressive Party's list in the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election and was elected to a third term when the list won a landslide majority with 188 mandates.[18] There were rumours that he would become president of the assembly after the election, but Ivica Dačić was chosen for the role and Orlić became one of its vice-presidents.[19] He continued to chair the stabilization and association committee and was a member of the committee on the rights of the child.[20]
Speaker of the assembly (2022–24)
Orlić received the twenty-third position on the Progressive Party's list in the 2022 parliamentary election and was re-elected when the list won 120 seats, falling below majority status but remaining as the dominant force in the assembly.[21] He was elected president of the assembly in August 2022, succeeding Dačić.[22] The choice of Orlić for this role was controversial; the president of the assembly is supposed to be non-partisan, and Orlić had by this time cultivated a reputation for harsh insults directed toward the SNS's rivals. During the debate on his candidacy, Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) assembly leader Marinika Tepić described him as "a symbol of the erosion of parliamentarism" in the country under the SNS.[23][24] This notwithstanding, he served as president for the term that followed. A article in the journal NIN later alleged that he oversaw the house in a biased manner, "turn[ing] off microphones, [...] respond[ing] with insults to criticism," and making frequent use of procedural mechanisms against the opposition.[25]
Orlić was promoted to the fifth position on the SNS's list for the 2023 parliamentary election and was re-elected when the list returned to majority status with 129 seats.[27] His term as assembly president ended on 6 February 2024, when the fourteenth convocation began. Stojan Radenović, as the oldest member of the assembly, became acting president, and Ana Brnabić was later chosen for the role on a full-time basis.[28][29]
In a March 2024 interview about the composition of Serbia's next government, SNS president Miloš Vučević said, "I think Orlić is definitely part of the future cabinet, we'll see in what position."[30] When Serbia's new ministry was announced on 30 April 2024, however, Orlić's name was not included.[31]
Orlić also held the lead position on the SNS alliance's list for Čukarica in the 2024 Serbian local elections and was elected to the municipal assembly when the list won a majority victory twenty-six out of forty-five seats.[32][33][34] He resigned his seat on 10 July 2024, the day the new assembly was established.[35]
BIA Director
On 12 June 2024, Orlić was appointed as director of Serbia's Security Intelligence Agency (BIA).[36] As with his appointment as national assembly president two years earlier, this decision was met with criticism in some circles. An article in NIN described his appointment as consistent with a broader pattern of SNS party control over state security mechanisms.[37] He resigned from the national assembly on the day after his appointment.[38]
Personal life
Orlić is married and has three daughters.[5] He resides in Belgrade.[5]
Notes
^Formally known as the Committee on Spatial Planning, Transport, Infrastructure, and Telecommunications.
^Formally known as the Committee on Education, Science, Technological Development, and the Information Society.
