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Zoran Milanović
Zoran Milanović on 16th anniversary of Operation Storm on 4 August 2011
Leader of the Opposition
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 June 2007
Prime Minister	Ivo Sanader Jadranka Kosor
Preceded by	Željka Antunović (Acting)
President of the Social Democratic Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 June 2007
Preceded by	Željka Antunović (Acting)
Personal details
Born	(1966-10-30) 30 October 1966 (age 58) Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Alma mater	University of Zagreb (Faculty of Law)
Profession	Lawyer

Zoran Milanović (pronounced [zǒran milǎːnoʋitɕ]; born 30 October 1966) is a Croatian politician, leader of the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP), the main opposition party.

Biography

Early life

His father Stipe and mother Gina have roots in Sinj. Zoran has a brother named Krešimir. He attended the Center for Management and Judiciary (an elite high-school). By his own admission, he was very lively and prone to fighting. In 1986, he entered the University of Zagreb in Judiciary. He learned English and Russian, as well as French.

After college, he became an intern at the Croatian Trade Court, and in 1993 got a job in the Croatian Foreign Ministry, ironically being accepted by future political rival Ivo Sanader. A year later, he went to Nagorno-Karabakh as part of a United Nations peace mission.

In 1994, he also married Sanja Musić-Milanović with whom he later had two sons, Anto and Marko. In 1996, he became an advisor at Croatian mission to the European Union and NATO at Brussels. He returned to the Foreign Ministry in 1999, at the end of his mandate.

In SDP

In 1999, he enrolled in SDP (he had not been a member of any party before that). Following SDP's win in the 2000 elections, he was given responsibility for liaison with NATO, three years later he became assistant to Foreign Minister Tonino Picula. He left his post after the 2003 elections when the conservative HDZ were reelected.

He was elected to SDP's Chief Committee in 2004. Two years later, he briefly became party spokesman, standing in for absent Gordana Grbić. He was also elected coordinator for the IV. election area for the upcoming 2007 elections.

Election as Party President

An extraordinary Party convention was held in Zagreb on 2 June 2007, due to the 11 April resignation (and 29 April death from kidney cancer) of the first Party President and Croatia's former Prime Minister Ivica Račan.

Milanović entered the contest, despite being considered an "outsider", because of his shorter term in the party, running against Željka Antunović (acting Party President since Račan's resignation), Milan Bandić and Tonino Picula. On 29 September 2007, during the campaign for party president, he publicly promised to resign and never to seek presidency of the party again, if party didn't win more seats that HDZ in next elections. In the first round he led with 592, well ahead of his nearest rival Željka Antunović. In the second round, he faced Antunović and again won by a large margin, thereby becoming president of the party.

As the new president

Milanović has already expressed his wish to see Ljubo Jurčić, the party's main economic strategist, as the next Prime Minister. Milanović will lead the party at the 2007 elections.

Since a regular SDP party convention is usually held 6 months after the Parliamentary Election (and hence will be held sometime in April or May 2008), Milanović is really on a temporary presidential term in the party.

His political future will greatly depend on the results of the Parliamentary elections in November, which he has a great chance of winning given his and his parties rising popularity.

Recently Milanović stated that Josip Broz Tito was a more positive and overall better politician than Franjo Tuđman.

In September 2008, Milanović made a highly-publicized visit to Bleiburg, Austria to commemorate the Bleiburg massacre. This made him the second leader of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia to visit the site, the first being Ivica Račan.

New Croatian elections

The 2007 parliamentary election ended very close with SDP (with 56 seats won) being only 10 mandates short of HDZ's 66 (which included 5 from Croatian diaspora, which was one of the main campaign issues of SDP that promised eliminating the right of vote to those not living in the country).

The resulting close race left both sides in a position to form a government, provided they win over 77 of the 153 representatives. After the election, Milanović controversially made himself the candidate for prime minister over Ljubo Jurčić, despite not consulting the party's Main Committee. Despite the best election result ever, Milanović's party remained in opposition, because the sitting Prime Minister Ivo Sanader was the first to form the majority coalition, which enabled him to stay in office.

After losing general elections, not only he didn't resign (as he previously promised), but he also again entered elections for president of the party in May 2008. He won the election and is currently serving as president of Social Democratic Party of Croatia.

References

1. SDP: SDP has not reached its maximum, the HDZ has
2. Knežević, Velinka. Dugo čučali u oporbi. Večernji list, 2011-11-01. Page 17. Retrieved 2011-11-02 Template:Hr icon
3. Javno - Hrvatska
4. ^ http://www.24sata.hr/politika/milanovic-obecao-ostavku-ako-ne-pobijedi-sanadera-61860
5. http://www.nacional.hr/articles/view/34990/
6. BIRN: Zoran Milanovic: A New Name In Croatian Politics
7. Milanović na Bleiburgu: 'Ja sam tu zbog žrtava, a ne zbog propalih režima', Dnevnik.hr
8. Decision Was Supposed To Be Made By Main Committee

• Nacional.hr: Zoran Milanovic – The Rise of Racan's Successor
• Template:Hr icon Javno.com: Biography

External links

• Blog Template:Language icon

Template:Persondata

• Use dmy dates from September 2010
• 1966 births
• Living people
• People from Zagreb
• Social Democratic Party of Croatia politicians