Serbia Makes Former Belgrade Mayor New Finance Minister

Former Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali will take over as Serbian Finance Minister after he was voted into office by the MPs of the ruling parties.

However, some experts predicted that he will likely act as the long arm his party leader, the Serbian President.

"He will lead Serbian finances wherever President] Aleksandar Vucic wants," economic journalist Misa Brkic predicted, adding that on all important cash flows in the state, he will consult Vucic first.

Referring to former minister Dusan Vujovic, he said that Mali "is more obedient than him. I don't expect much creativity when it comes to continuation of economic reforms or privatisation of state-owned companies."

Vujovic resigned on May 7, saying that the four years he spent in government was "quite enough for a man to prove himself in a public office".

Unlike Vujovic, who is not member of any party and was appointed as an expert, Mali is a senior official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, led by Vucic.

He has been involved in controversies, having been accused of plagiarising his PhD thesis, of concealing his ownership of apartments on the Bulgarian coast and of manhandling a journalist - as well as of involvement in the controversial demolitions work in Belgrade's Savamala area.

A year after he took office, his doctoral thesis was disputed by Rasa Karapandza, a professor of finance from Wiesbaden in Germany, who accused Mali of plagiarising 33 per cent of the text from various authors, and as Karapandza wrote on the Pescanik website, using Wikipedia.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told MPs at Monday's session that Sinisa Mali deserved his new post because of the "numerous reforms which have been made in the Serbian capital...