Zdravko Ponoš

Zdravko Ponoš (Serbian Cyrillic: Здравко Понош; born 3 November 1962) is a Serbian politician, former diplomat, and retired general who served as chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces from 2006 to 2008.

Born in Golubić, a village near Knin, Ponoš later moved to Zagreb, where he spent most of his youth and obtained a degree in electronic engineering. Ponoš moved to Serbia in 1986, where he began his military career. Two years later, he obtained a job at the Department of Development and Equipment in Belgrade, where he worked until 2002. Ponoš then acquired a position at the Ministry of Defense, where he served as an advisor to multiple ministers, including future president Boris Tadić. In 2005, he was promoted to the rank of major general after having served as a colonel since 2000, and also became deputy chief of the General Army. A year later, Tadić promoted him to become the chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces. As chief of the General Staff, Ponoš worked on army reforms and professionalisation, though this process stagnated in late 2008 due to a conflict with defense minister Dragan Šutanovac, which led to his dismissal in December 2008. Ponoš was retired as an army officer a year later.

After leaving the military, Ponoš worked as a diplomatic assistant to foreign affairs minister Vuk Jeremić, whom he previously worked with in the Serbian government. Their cooperation continued after 2012, and Ponoš served as chief of Jeremić's cabinet during his mandate as president of the UN General Assembly. After returning from the United States, they formed the Center for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development, with Ponoš initially serving as executive director and later as a senior advisor.

Ponoš entered politics in 2017 after participating in Jeremić's campaign team during the presidential election, and later that year, they founded the People's Party. He was a vice-president of the party until November 2021 and was the nominee of the United for the Victory of Serbia coalition in the 2022 Serbian presidential election, in which he placed second. He left the People's Party after the election and formed the Serbia Centre organisation in July 2022, which became a registered party a year later. He was elected to the National Assembly in the 2023 election. A centrist politician, he is in favour of the accession of Serbia to the European Union and military cooperation with NATO. He also criticised Aleksandar Vučić and the government's approach towards foreign relations and military.