Jaksic claims Soskic did not qualify as professor in 2015
An SNS Presidency member presented 2015 documents and claims the Student List candidate was made a professor on the basis of falsified reports. Soskic points to the University.
Aleksandar Jaksic, a member of the Presidency of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), claimed at a press conference at party headquarters on Sunday, October 11, that Dejan Soskic, former governor of the National Bank of Serbia and a candidate of the Student List, was made a full professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade in 2015 on the basis of falsified reports. Soskic did not comment on the claims and referred questions to the relevant bodies of the University of Belgrade.
Ana Brnabic, vice president of the SNS Main Board and a candidate on the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list, also spoke alongside Jaksic. Most of the conference was devoted to Soskic.
What does Jaksic claim about the full professor appointment?
According to Jaksic, the University of Belgrade Senate made the decision on June 10, 2015. He cites the requirement of at least two papers from the C list or three papers in category M24, or a combination of one C-list paper and two M24 papers. He claims Soskic had none of these when the appointment process was launched.
The committee that prepared the report, Jaksic says, consisted of Kosta Josifidis, Branko Urosevic and Bosko Zivkovic. He presents a Faculty of Economics document dated March 11, 2015, and calls a confirmation from the journal Panoeconomicus, signed by editor-in-chief Josifidis, a fake. In his words, the paper was accepted only in May, even though Soskic had claimed in February that it had been accepted.
The paper in the journal Industrija, Jaksic says, was published in early July 2015, after the appointment, while the text in Panoeconomicus is a polemic that does not count as a scholarly paper. He summed up his conclusion this way:
“At the time when they (the Faculty of Economics) said he met those requirements, not only did he have no published paper, they did not even have official confirmation that the paper would be published, any of the four papers the committee listed.”
Reports from the conference differ on one detail. According to Danas, Jaksic said Soskic eventually met the requirements, but only later, after the procedure had begun. According to Novosti, he claims Soskic did not meet them at any stage. Jaksic himself said:
- “So Soskic did not meet a single requirement to be appointed full professor.”
Whom else does the SNS name in connection with the committee?
The SNS also stated that Soskic, Branko Urosevic and Goran Altaras were founders of the firm Centar za investicije i finansije (Centre for Investment and Finance), under a contract dated August 12, 2003. Bosko Zivkovic, according to the same claim, was a co-owner of that firm until December 9, 2013. From this Jaksic concludes that two members of the committee had a business relationship with the candidate whose appointment they were deciding.
Jaksic also questioned the studies and biographies of three more Student List candidates: Jovo Bakic, Sanja Fric and Milena Petrovic. According to N1, he said they studied several years longer than undergraduate or master’s programs take and were below average students.
What did Brnabic say, and what did Soskic say?
Brnabic said Soskic is not the only person on the list who was appointed irregularly and that many professors were chosen on the basis of falsified documents during the blockades. She also mentioned the claim by Dina Vucinic, president of the Novi Sad City Assembly, that a man threatened her with death on the street, and said that at a student rally in Nis the previous evening, a man spoke who had attacked a woman the week before and was detained. She concluded:
“That is their face and their policy toward the women of Serbia - violence, violence and violence”
Asked about the names of people whom SNS list leader Aleksandar Vucic pardoned ahead of his resignation as president of Serbia, Brnabic did not answer. She said briefly:
- “I cannot answer in party premises”
She explained that at a party conference she may not speak about state affairs because of the rules on officeholder campaigning.
Soskic told Insajder that the answers about his title should come from the Faculty of Economics and the Rectorate, that is, the competent bodies of the University of Belgrade. He told N1 he would not comment on the opinions of politicians on topics for which, as he put it, they are obviously not competent.
Jaksic also said the SNS informed members of the academic community about all of this, and that the evidence was sent to Soskic, all rectors, deans and most professors.
