PROFILE OF PARLIAMENTARY VICE PRESIDENT BALTAZAR JALSOVEC

ZAGREB, Feb 2 (Hina) - A newly elected Vice President of the House of Representatives of the Croatian National Sabor, Baltazar Jalsovec, was born 3 January 1947 in Štrukovac. He is married and has three children. He has been a member of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) since its founding. He completed secondary education and is involved with agriculture. Since 1971 he lived abroad and was actively involved in several Croatian organisations. Since his return to Croatia, he continued to be involved in politics. He was a municipal official in Cakovec and in 1986 entered parliament. He himself says that he was victorious over several solid opponents although he was never a member of the Communist Alliance of Croatia (SKH). He noted that during his mandate he was involved with an internal pro-Croatian group of MP's who openly supported the preservation of the Croatian standard language. He was also involved in the abolishment of a limit to land ownership, which was one of the pre- conditions for party pluralism. At the first multi-party elections in 1990, he was elected as one of the three HSLS MP's to the Sabor. He was re-elected to parliament in 1992 and 1995. (hina) sp