Former Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić has become the new acting president of the Balkan country after Aleksandar Vučić stepped down earlier this week. 

Already a history maker, Brnabić previously served as the country’s first lesbian prime minister in 2017. She’s been widely criticized by LGBTQ+ rights advocates in the country for not speaking up for LGBTQ+ human rights while in the government.

But who is Ana Brnabić?

The Political History of Ana Brnabić

In 2016, Vučić appointed her as minister of public administration. Several months later, he picked her to succeed him as prime minister. 

Brnabić became the first woman and first out prime minister. In 2024, she was elected Speaker of the National Assembly, Serbia’s parliament.

Vučić resigned on September 27, and his presidential power went to Brnabić, who served as the speaker of the country’s parliament, making her the acting president. Brnabić will be acting president until presidential elections, which must be called within three months. Vučić is widely expected to try to become the country’s next prime minister, continuing to solidify power over the country. Human rights activists have called Vučić an authoritarian figure. 

Brnabić is the only person to hold the top three posts in the Serbian government: president, prime minister, and speaker. 

While Vučić has been accused of going after journalists and human rights activists, Brnabić has continued to defend him. During a recent television debate, Brnabićtold the station,  “I was not particularly happy to come to N1 this time either, given the way your television station has, over the past ten years, engaged in what I see as the dehumanisation of my president and my friend,” she said, according to Balkan Insight.

Ana Brnabić’s and LGBTQ+ Rights in Serbia

A few months after she became prime minister, she told The Guardian, “Serbia is changing and changing fast, and if you will, I am part of that change, but I do not want to be branded ‘Serbia’s gay PM’. The message we need to send is about competence, professionalism and trustworthiness.”

“I do not want to change people’s thinking by law,” she added.

That year, Brnabić became the first Serbian prime minister to attend Belgrade Pride.

However, activists in Serbia have complained that she did not do more to support queer rights in the country.

“I don’t think Serbia is that homophobic. I know that is one of the perceptions, and I understand attitudes are different in parts of Serbia. But some journalists were in a village in central Serbia where part of my family come from. They saw a couple of people just drinking beer in front of the local store and they asked them about me, and they replied: ‘Well, listen, in this part of Serbia we grow raspberries, fruit and vegetables, and we do not grow discrimination,’” Brnabić told the Guardian back then. 

In Serbia, LGBTQ+ people face continued discrimination. Earlier this year, a drag artist was attacked in Belgrade.

Marriage equality is banned. Adoption is also banned for same-sex couples in Serbia (though single people can adopt regardless of their sexual orientation). Brnabic and her partner used artificial insemination to conceive their son in 2019, but a policy shortly after that banned queer people from doing so.

Brnabić has consistently been silent on LGBTQ+ rights or comments or laws targeting LGBTQ+ Serbians.

Still, she has her fans.

Former Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who became Ireland’s first gay head of government in 2017, praised Brnabić on Tuesday.

“Congratulations to Ana Brnabić on becoming the world’s first lesbian head of state (president of Serbia),” Varadkar wrote on social media. “She visited while in her previous office and is a friend of Ireland.”