Mladen Grujičić

Grujičić was born in 1982 in Srebrenica. He left the town during the Bosnian War in which his father was killed fighting for the Army of Republika Srpska.[1]

After finishing his studies at the Faculty of Technology in Zvornik which as a part of the University of East Sarajevo,[2] he started his business career, and after that he was a high school professor in the chemistry group of subjects at the High School Center in Srebrenica.[3]

For several years, he led the Municipal Organization of Families of Captured and Killed Fighters and Missing Civilians in Srebrenica, and he was named "Humanist of the Year" by the republic organization for 2010.[3]

Grujičić is a longtime SNSD member and was a candidate for a member of local parliament in 2012.[1]

On 10 July 2016, Mladen Grujičić a joint candidate of all Serb parties in Srebrenica started his campaign for the Mayor of Srebrenica for the 2016 local elections. His candidacy for mayor was announced on April 14, when a meeting of the leaders of nine Serb political parties from Srebrenica was held. At that time, it was agreed to run in the elections with a joint candidate for mayor within the coalition "Together for Srebrenica".[1][4]

Grujičić defeated his rival Ćamil Duraković with 54.38% of the popular vote and took office as the new mayor of Srebrenica on 8 November 2016.[5] This was the first time in 17 years that a Serb candidate won the elections.[2]

Grujičić has been called a Serbian nationalist and Srebrenica genocide denier by the Bosniak public and his opponents.[1] Talking about the Srebrenica massacre, Grujičić himself said this during the campaign:[2]

"It is an imposed story and it will fall sometime. No Serb and most Bosniaks living here believe in the Hague farce. Bosniaks who say that there was no genocide are even declared insane."