Tesic Reportedly Removed as SNS Commissioner in Pancevo
Unofficially, Ivan Tesic is no longer the SNS commissioner for Pancevo, four days after he wore a shirt bearing councillor Tamara Maksic's face to a city assembly session.
Ivan Tesic, who leads the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) group in the Pancevo city assembly, is unofficially no longer the party’s commissioner for Pancevo. The information came on October 13 from Green-Left Front councillor Tamara Maksic, and the party has not officially confirmed it. The change comes four days after the session at which Tesic wore a shirt with Maksic’s face on it, which we covered earlier when Maksic announced a criminal complaint.
What is known about the removal of the SNS commissioner in Pancevo?
Maksic said Tesic was removed from the party post but remains head of the councillors’ group. Portal N1 reports that Marko Mladenovic, also a councillor in the Pancevo city assembly, has been named the new commissioner. Maksic herself stresses that this is not confirmed and that she does not know what the change would mean in practice:
“I don’t know what that actually means. He remains a councillor. He still holds a public office, and none of us is interested in his party position.”
Tesic was asked about it by N1 but neither confirmed nor denied the claims. He ended the phone call and did not reply to a message with the same questions. Besides his seat as a councillor, Tesic is the director of the Banat Forestry Enterprise in Pancevo, part of the public company Vojvodinasume.
What happened at the October 9 session?
At the Pancevo city assembly session on October 9, Tesic showed up in a shirt printed with a photo of Maksic and the slogan “The oldest profession is always in fashion.” According to footage from the session posted on social media, he then covered the slogan with his hands while opposition councillors protested and then left the hall. Assembly Speaker Tigran Kis called a break.
Maksic told N1 that she only noticed the shirt when she went up to speak in reply, and that she called on Kis to react. When she asked why Tesic was hiding the message he was wearing, she says, a scuffle and commotion followed. She also described this as not the first time she has been obstructed:
“Ivan Tesic repeatedly came up to the podium during sessions and physically prevented me from speaking. Everything is obviously allowed to them, it’s already ridiculous.”
Criminal complaint and opposition reaction
Maksic claims her legal team is preparing a criminal complaint against Tesic, which should be filed soon. Available sources do not confirm that it has been submitted. In a statement, the Green-Left Front said Tesic sexually harassed Maksic with his act, and the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina condemned his conduct.
A recording is also circulating on social media in which, as described, Tesic can be heard pressuring the director of a Pancevo school to come to SNS premises. Tesic has not commented on that recording.
For now, the SNS has confirmed neither that the removal took place nor that Mladenovic is the new commissioner, so it is officially still unknown whether Tesic remains head of the councillors’ group as well.
