He was born in a prominent Serbian family of politicians and intellectuals. His great grandfather Stojan Protić was Serbian statesman and the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (1918–1920). His grandfather Milan St. Protić was the Governor of the Yugoslav Central Bank (1939–1940) and was the member of the Yugoslav cabinet (1941).[4] His father was a renowned Yugoslav sportswriter and FIFA official.
Upon his return to Yugoslavia, Milan St. Protić entered the Institute for Balkan Studies as a Research Fellow. He was a visiting professor at UC Santa Barbara (1991–1992). He also gave lectures at universities in Thessaloniki, Paris, Cambridge, London, Harvard, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. He is the author of several books about Serbian and Yugoslav 19th and 20th century history.
Political career
From 1991, St. Protić took an active part in the opposition movement against the regime of Slobodan Milošević. He became one of the leading figures of the opposition movement and a member of its leadership in 1998.
On October 5, 2000, he was elected Mayor of Belgrade as the first official-elect of the new democratic government.