Home > Ivica Racan

During socialist Yugoslavia, Racan was a member of the League of Communists of Croatia. He became its leader in 1989, and led the Croatian delegation in the crucial congress of the Communist Parties of Yugoslavia when Slovenian and Croatian delegations refused further cooperation with the Serbian Communist Party led by Slobodan Miloševic. Racan broke other taboos of Communist Yugoslavia, too: he was the first president of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia who publicly congratulated Christmas to believers in Croatia in 1989, and he had the first free elections organized a few months later.

Following the fall of Communism, he subsequently became the leader of the transformed communist party then called League of Communists of Croatia -- Party of Democratic Changes. They lost the multi-party elections of 1990 but remained in parliamentary opposition. Racan became (in)famous for stating publicly how they thought that the winner of the elections, the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union, was a party of dangerous intentions.

In 1994 they merged with the Social Democrats of Croatia to form the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP), with Racan its president.

After his party, in coalition with the Croatian Social Liberal PartyCroatian Social Liberal Party ( Croatian: Hrvatska socijalno liberalna stranka HSLS is a liberal party in Croatia. The party is a member of Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. Its long-time leader is Drazen BudiSa and (HSLS), won the elections in 2000This page is about the year 2000. See 2000 AD for the UK comic book, Number 2000 for other uses. 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar), and also the International Year for a Culture of Peace''. Events Y2K passes without the seri, he became the prime minister of Croatia. His government included ministers from SDP, HSLS, Croatian Peasants Party (HSS), the Liberal PartyThe Liberal Party ( Croatian Liberalna stranka LS is a liberal party in Croatia. The party is a member of Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. The LS is currently led by Zlatko BenaSic. It was formed in 1997 by Vladimi (LS), Croatian People's PartyThe Croatian People's Party ( Croatian Hrvatska narodna stranka HNS a liberal party in Croatia. The party is a member of Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. The HNS is led by Vesna Pusic. The HNS participated in the 2 (HNS), Istrian Democratic Congress (IDS).

The latter party later left the coalition governmentA coalition government or coalition cabinet is a cabinet in parliamentary government in which several parties cooperate. The usual reason is that no party on its own has a majority in the parliament. In times of crisis such as a war or a major economic or, but it caused no major upheaval as they were a minor participant. Racan's style of leadership was generally considered rather withdrawn for a premier, but he was nevertheless able to maintain a parliamentary majority.

Racan briefly resigned on July 5, 2002 after their coalition partner HSLS obstructed the ratification of a vital agreement with Slovenia on the status of the co-owned nuclear power plant Krško. The HSLS later split into the main faction that left the government and a dissenting faction that formed a new party called Libra which enabled Racan to form a slightly modified government that would remain in power until the next elections.

His center-left coalition lost the parliamentary majority with the November 2003 elections. Ivica Racan ceased to be the prime minister on December 23rd, 2003 when Croatian Parliament gave its consent for his successor, Ivo Sanader of the Croatian Democratic Union.