Serbia's Ana Brnabić becomes acting President — for 90 days

The Balkans' first openly lesbian head of state has three months in the job, a contested record on LGBTQ+ rights, and a constitutional clock already ticking.

Told by Paige Turner · 2 October 2026

Ana Brnabić became acting President of Serbia on 28 September, which makes her the first openly lesbian head of state in the Balkans and possibly the world, depending on how you count and who you ask. She took office automatically after President Aleksandar Vučić resigned, her role as Speaker of the National Assembly handing her the job for exactly 90 days while the country prepares for an election. The constitutional clock started the moment Vučić walked.

Brnabić has been here before — the first woman and first out lesbian appointed Prime Minister of Serbia in 2017, when Vučić moved from that office into the presidency. She held the job longer than anyone in Serbian history, seven years until 2024, and became the first Serbian prime minister to attend a Pride parade in September 2017. She told the crowd in Belgrade that the government was there for all citizens and would secure respect for everyone's rights. Her partner, Milica Đurđić, gave birth to their son in 2019 while Brnabić was still in office, making her the first LGBTQ+ head of government whose partner gave birth while serving.

And then she didn't push LGBT legal reforms, her words, because she had other policy areas to prioritise. Same-sex marriage is still banned in Serbia. Same-sex couples still cannot legally adopt. Civil unions are not explicitly mentioned in the constitution, which means they exist in a grey space where the law does not forbid them but does not recognise them either, and same-sex parents have no legal protections or provisions that heterosexual couples take as given.

LGBTQ+ activists in Serbia have spent years saying the same thing: that Brnabić, as one half of a same-sex couple with a child, had the platform and the power to advocate for equality and chose not to. She said at the time she didn't want to be known as Serbia's gay prime minister. Fair enough — except when you are the first, and the only, and you are raising a child in a legal system that does not recognise your family, not wanting to be known for it starts to look like not wanting to do anything about it.

She attended one Pride. One, in seven years. The rest of the time she was prioritising other areas of policy, which is a sentence that works beautifully in a press conference and tells you everything you need to know about where LGBTQ+ rights sat on the list.

Now she is President, for three months, and the constitution is clear: Serbia must hold an election within 90 days of a presidential resignation. Brnabić will be acting head of state until late December at the latest, and then the country votes. Whether she runs, whether she wins, whether the Serbian Progressive Party wants her to — none of that is settled. What is settled is that the Balkans have their first openly lesbian head of state, and the job came with an expiry date printed on it.

The last time a queer politician made history by taking office without an election, the question was always whether they would fight to keep it or whether the milestone was the point. Brnabić has 90 days to answer that, and seven years of form suggesting she would rather not be asked.