Jelena Tanasković has been acting director of the Serbian Railway Infrastructure since May 2024, RTS writes.
In the previous mandate of the Government of Serbia, Tanasković held the position of Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.
Prior to that, from 2020 to 2022, she was State Secretary in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, while between 2018 and 2020, she held the position of State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.
She was also the City Secretary for Finance of the City of Belgrade from 2017.
Ostavku was also submitted by the Minister of Internal and Foreign Trade, Tomislav Momirović, on Wednesday.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said the previous day that due to the tragedy in Novi Sad, he expects "resignations in the Government and in other places", and some concrete measures from the prosecution as soon as possible.
He resigned on November 5th., four days after the fall of the canopy at the "Novi Sad" railway station, was first submitted by the former Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Goran Vesić.
A series of accusations from the past
How is "Time"? previously written, Jelena Tanasković was the subject of criminal proceedings before the High Court in Belgrade at the beginning of the rule of the progressives. The Slovenian NLB bank accused her of embezzling more than 50 million euros as the director of a factoring house together with several Serbian businessmen.
Allegedly, then she meets Siniša Malog, the most influential progressive after Vučić, and her life takes a different course. During his mandate at the head of Belgrade from 2014 to 2018, she was first responsible for child protection, and then became the city secretary for finance.
After Mali's departure to the Government of Serbia, Tanasković followed him and became State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, and later became State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment, which part of the informed public recognized as an attempt by the First Vice-President of the Government to control Minister Irena Vujović.
Originally Minister of Agriculture
To the surprise of many in the Serbian Progressive Party, Tanasković became Minister of Agriculture in October 2022. Where she came from in that position became clear when, in the following year, the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture increased three times compared to the time when her predecessor Branislav Nedimović was the minister. However, Tanasković did not manage this department successfully even with such a budget, since her mandate was marked by numerous protests by farmers. The way she dealt with farmers is best illustrated by the case from Bavaniste, when local progressives blocked the doorstep of one of the disgruntled farmers, preventing him from taking his sick child to the doctor.
During the election of the new Government in May 2024, Tanasković will lose the position of Minister of Agriculture. That this loss of office is the result of intra-party fights in the SNS is confirmed by the statement of the current Minister of Agriculture, Aleksandar Martinović, made a few months ago in a debate in the National Assembly. Responding to MP Miroslav Aleksić, Minister Martinović accused Tanasković of extending the deadline for applying for subsidies for agricultural machinery so that Aleksić could allegedly receive an incentive for a tractor.
A comforting place
In the current conflicts of the progressives, Tanasković is placed in the group of Bratislava Gašić, who is facing the fate of Nebojša Stefanović. Time will tell whether this is true, and until then, Minister Mali has appointed Jelena Tanasković a consolation position as director of the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia. In the progressive, almost feudal hierarchy, it is considered that the position of director of this company belongs to Mal, whose staff included Nebojša Šurlan, a long-time director who left the company because the recorded telephone conversations he had with Mal and other state officials were leaked to the public. functionaries.
The railway infrastructure of Serbia managed the railway station in Novi Sad. The station master, train conductors, as well as employees who cleaned and maintained it and sold tickets to passengers sat in that station. By the way, the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia manages about 650 railway stations and many of them, like the Prokop station, do not have a use permit.
According to "Vremena" sources from one of the employees' unions, this railway company took over each new phase of the completed works at the Novi Sad Railway Station, and the same procedure was carried out at Prokop. In addition to being an investor in the unsuccessful reconstruction of the station in Novi Sad, the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia, as a manager, was obliged to check the condition of the facility. Citizens' statements to the media after the tragedy show that they did not do that, statements in which they claimed to have reported that pieces of concrete were falling from the canopy. No one from Infrastructure responded.
Source: RST/Vreme
