ZAGREB, Jan 27 (Hina) - Following is the biography of Ivica Racan, Croatia's newly appointed Prime Minister. Racan was born in Ebersbach, Germany, on 24 February 1944. He graduated at the Zagreb Law School in 1970, and worked as a
researcher at the Zagreb Institute for Social Research between 1965 and 1974. Racan was a member of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the Communist Alliance of Croatia (SKH) from 1974 and 1982, and a member of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the Communist Alliance of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between (SKJ) 1986 and 1989. In December 1989, Racan was elected president of the SKH Central Committee. He said at the time that in four months Croatia would hold the first democratic, multiparty elections. In January 1990, Racan headed a SKH delegation at SKJ's 14th congress in Belgrade, where he clashed openly with Slobodan Milosevic, his ultra-
ZAGREB, Jan 27 (Hina) - Following is the biography of Ivica Racan,
Croatia's newly appointed Prime Minister.
Racan was born in Ebersbach, Germany, on 24 February 1944. He
graduated at the Zagreb Law School in 1970, and worked as a
researcher at the Zagreb Institute for Social Research between 1965
and 1974.
Racan was a member of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the
Communist Alliance of Croatia (SKH) from 1974 and 1982, and a member
of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the Communist
Alliance of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between
(SKJ) 1986 and 1989.
In December 1989, Racan was elected president of the SKH Central
Committee. He said at the time that in four months Croatia would
hold the first democratic, multiparty elections.
In January 1990, Racan headed a SKH delegation at SKJ's 14th
congress in Belgrade, where he clashed openly with Slobodan
Milosevic, his ultra-nationalists and dogmatic majority. Racan and
the Croatian delegation left the congress, and together with a
Slovene delegation left Belgrade, then the capital of the former
Yugoslav federation.
That same year, Racan organised the first democratic, multiparty
elections in Croatia, and supervised the peaceful transfer of
authority to the party which won the elections, the Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ). Racan was elected MP at the same
elections.
Representing the democratic current at the SKH, Racan in 1990
reformed and renamed the party into SKH-SDP (Party of Democratic
Change). Next year, the party became the Social Democratic Party of
Croatia (SDP).
Racan was subsequently elected MP at the House of Representatives
at elections in 1995 and 1997.
Between 1995 and 1997, he continued building the SDP into a strong
opposition to the then ruling HDZ.
In August 1998, Racan signed an agreement on cooperation at
parliamentary elections in 2000 with Drazen Budisa, the president
of the Croatian Social Liberal Party. He simultaneously
contributed to bringing together and urging to cooperate six of
Croatia's principal opposition parties, with the aim to fortify
their position and further democratise Croatia.
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