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Prime Minister of Croatia

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Style
  
His Excellency

Formation
  
30 May 1990

Inaugural holder
  
Stjepan Mesić

Website
  
www.vlada.hr

Prime Minister of Croatia

Appointer
  
President of the Republic

The Prime Minister of Croatia (Croatian: Premijer/ Premijerka Hrvatske), officially the President of the Government of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Predsjednik/ Predsjednica Vlade Republike Hrvatske), is Croatia's head of government, and is the de facto most powerful and influential state officeholder in the Croatian system of government. Following the first-time establishment of the office in 1945, the 1990-2001 semi-presidential period is the only exception where the President of Croatia held de facto authority. In the formal Croatian order of precedence, however, the position of prime minister is the third highest state office, after the President of the Republic and the Speaker of the Parliament.

Contents

The Constitution of Croatia prescribes that the Parliament "supervises" the Government (Article 81) and that the President of the Republic "ensures the regular and balanced functioning and stability of government" (as a whole; Article 94), while the Government is introduced in Article 108. Since 2000, the prime minister has had various added constitutional powers and is mentioned before the Government itself in the text of the Constitution, in Articles 87, 97, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104. The current Prime Minister of Croatia is Andrej Plenković. The Government of Croatia meets in Banski dvori, a historical building located on the west side of St. Mark's Square in Zagreb.

Name

The official name of the office, literally translated, is "President of the Government" (Predsjednik Vlade), rather than "Prime Minister" (Prvi Ministar). When the office was first established in 1945, the name "President of the Government" was introduced. The name of the office was changed 8 years later with the Yugoslav constitutional reforms of 1953, into "President of the Executive Council" (Predsjednik Izvršnog vijeća). After another round of constitutional reforms in 1990, the office was renamed back to its original 1945-1953 title of "President of the Government". For all periods, however, the term "Prime Minister" is colloquially used (especially in the media) in English-language usage.

History

The Royal Government of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia (1868-1918) was headed by Ban (Viceroy), who represented the King. The first head of government of Croatia as a constituent republic of Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was Vladimir Bakarić, who assumed the position on 14 April 1945. The position was then, as it is today, the most powerful public office in the state (the only historical exception being the extremely powerful semi-presidential system used from 1990 until 2000, during which the President was by far the most significant figure in the government hierarchy). In post-World War II Socialist Republic of Croatia, a single-party system was in place. During this time there were twelve heads of government (using the title President of the Executive Council), all from the ranks of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ), which was reformed and renamed into the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ) in 1952. The federal party was organized into six sub-organizations - the republic parties, one for each of the six federal republics. Croatian politicians and prime ministers of the period were members of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia through their membership in the League of Communists of Croatia (SKH), the Croatian part of the federal party (as was respectively the case with all Yugoslav politicians). The office remained the central post of Croatian politics in spite of the institution of a collective Presidency in 1974 (previously the mostly-nominal function of the head of state belonged to the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament, the Sabor).

After the constitutional amendments that allowed for multi-party elections in Croatia, the Parliament enacted amendments to the constitution (25 July) which eliminated socialist references and adopted new national symbols. The newly elected tricameral Parliament proceeded to change the Constitution of Croatia, and on 22 December 1990, this so-called "Christmas Constitution" fundamentally defined the Republic of Croatia and its governmental structure. From the 1990 constitutional reforms onward Croatia was a semi-presidential republic, which meant the President of Croatia had broad executive powers (further expanded with laws to a point of superpresidentialism), including the appointment and dismissal of the Prime Minister and other officials in the government. During this period, lasting until constitutional amendments in late 2000, Croatia had seven prime ministers. The first Prime Minister of Croatia since the 1990 constitutional reforms was Stjepan Mesić, assuming office on 30 May 1990.

Croatia proclaimed independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991 following the May 1991 independence referendum. However, the country then signed the July 1991 Brijuni Agreement in which it agreed to postpone the formal declaration of independence for three months. Meanwhile, the Croatian War of Independence ensued, and Franjo Gregurić was appointed to lead a Government of National Unity. In October the same year, Croatia formally declared independence, with Gregurić continuing on as the first prime minister of Croatia after the secession from Yugoslavia.

Following the January 2000 general election the winning centre-left coalition led by the Social Democratic Party amended the Constitution and effectively stripped the President of most of his executive powers, strengthening the role of the Parliament and the Prime Minister, turning Croatia into a parliamentary republic. The Prime Minister again (as before 1990) became the foremost post in Croatian politics.

To date there have been twelve Prime Ministers who have chaired 14 governments since the first multi-party elections. Nine Prime Ministers were members of the Croatian Democratic Union during their terms of office, two were members of the Social Democratic Party and one was not a member of any political party. Since independence there has been one female Prime Minister (Jadranka Kosor), while Savka Dabčević-Kučar was the first woman (not only in Croatia, but in Europe) to hold an office equivalent to a head of government as Chairman of the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (1967-1969).

List of officeholders (1945–present)

  League of Communists of Yugoslavia   Croatian Democratic Union   Social Democratic Party of Croatia   Independent

Prime Ministers of the Republic of Croatia (1990–present)

While Stjepan Mesić formally held the post of President of the Executive Council, not of Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, during his term in office (May-August 1990), he is today considered to have been the first Prime Minister of an independent Croatia as the head of the first Croatian government cabinet (in fact the 14th Executive Council of SR Croatia) following the first multi-party elections in 1990. Likewise, when Josip Manolić held the title of Prime Minister during his term (1990-1991), Croatia was still legally within the Yugoslav federation and did not formally even declare independence until 25 June 1991, which was followed by the severing of all remaining ties with Yugoslavia only on 8 October 1991, during the term of Franjo Gregurić, the third Prime Minister since 1990. Thus, it is as of 2016 considered that there have been 12 Prime Ministers of the Republic of Croatia to date and that the office of Prime Minister is not a direct continuation or successor of the post of President of the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, which was formally and legally one of six constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and was thus not an independent nation. Therefore, the Presidents of the republic's Executive Council, though formally being heads of government, held a sub-national office similar to modern-day First Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland or Minister-presidents in German states, and were subordinate to the Federal Executive Council in Belgrade. It is thus technically and legally correct to consider Josip Manolić the first Prime Minister after independence was declared on 25 June 1991 (Manolić's term ended 22 days later), while Franjo Gregurić was the first Prime Minister after full independence was formally and legally achieved.

Living former Heads of government of Croatia

There are eleven living former Heads of government (2 former Presidents of the Executive Council of SR Croatia and 9 former Prime Ministers of Croatia):

Presidents of the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (until 1990):

Prime Ministers of the Republic of Croatia (1990–present):

References

Prime Minister of Croatia Wikipedia