Milica Gjurgjević Stamenković, Serbia’s Minister for Family Care and Demography, claims to have graduated in Political Science from the Faculty of Political Sciences. However, investigations by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) reveal that she never graduated from there.
Gjurgjević Stamenković first entered the spotlight in May when she appeared in the National Assembly as an opposition deputy. Her party, Zavetnici, did not pass the registration in the December 2023 parliamentary elections, despite being in coalition with the Dveri movement.
She later appeared in the Assembly as the new Minister for Family Care and Demography. Her biography, which was submitted to deputies along with the biographies of other proposed ministers, states that after finishing high school in Belgrade, she enrolled at the Faculty of Political Sciences, where she graduated in Political Science.
This claim has been consistently mentioned on her personal website and the Ministry’s official page. However, despite enrolling at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, Gjurgjević Stamenković never completed her studies, as uncovered by CINS.
Former Minister of Education, Srgjan Verbić, commented that no one in the government checks CVs, and when becoming a minister, proof of education is not required. “I brought documents because I thought some were needed, but no one asked me for them,” Verbić said.
In response to CINS, Minister Gjurgjević Stamenković asserts that she received her degree this year from the Russian Institute for Diaspora and Integration. She has not provided evidence for this claim, as she says she has submitted the documentation for enrollment in master’s studies at the Russian State Social University.
