Radimir Cacic

Early life

After graduating from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Architecture in 1973, he worked for a Zagreb company before moving to Varazdin and joining the construction company "Zagorje". Together with several partners, in 1979 he left Zagorje and founded the construction company "DP Coning". In 1989, the Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce awarded him with the title of manager of the year. Cacic amassed considerable wealth in the process, and when the laws were changed in March 1989 to allow for privatization, he spent 750,000 German marks to buy a 25% stake in his old company "Zagorje", and later merged the two companies, with some jobs being lost in the process.

1990s

He first entered politics in the Coalition of People's Accord in 1989, but with no electoral success. In 1990 and 1991, with Cacic as the director, Coning was involved in a failed construction project in Dubrovnik.

During the Croatian War of Independence, Cacic was a brigadier of the fledgling Croatian army. In the Battle of the Barracks, he led the September 1991 negotiations with the Yugoslav People's Army to abandon the Varazdin barracks and was used as a hostage to make sure disarmed army members were safely escorted to Serbia. He was later awarded the Homeland War Memorial Medal and the Order of Duke Domagoj.

In 1991-1992, Coning was involved in another much larger failed construction project in Israel, for which the company was later involved in multimillion-dollar lawsuits. DP Coning was transformed into Coning holding with several daughter companies, and the Holding was later renamed Ingprojekt. This transaction was later undone in a court of law, but Cacic had since sold or transferred his stakes in the Coning companies to a legal firm. Cacic's business affairs were commonly used against him when he became more active in politics, and for the Israel case he was once defamed by Miroslav Rozic. By 1995, he was one of the few Croatian politicians who were wealthy prior to entering a public office, although his wealth would later multiply during the course of his political activity.

He succeeded Savka Dabcevic-Kucar as the president of the Croatian People's Party (HNS) and held the position for six years. He in turn was succeeded by Vesna Pusic, while Cacic became the president of the central committee of the party. He became a member of the Croatian Parliament after the 1995 parliamentary election.

2000s

In the 2000 election, the HNS won more seats in the Croatian Parliament and participated in the six-party coalition that formed the government under Ivica Racan. Cacic was the only member of HNS in the government but was given the influential and suitable position of the Minister of Public Works, Reconstruction and Building which granted him access to many government sponsored projects.

Radimir Cacic was instrumental in reviving the project to build the Zagreb-Split motorway, arranging a more viable financing model – one that did not favour Bechtel Corporation so much as the contracts signed by Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) did, both before and after Cacic. The ministry invited tenders in order to choose the construction companies which would build the new road, and this method proved successful in getting the building under way. When Cacic exited the office, the sections from Karlovac to Zadar were mostly completed and the rest were also partially built.

Cacic also helped organize the public state-sponsored housing project for young families, the first such endeavour in modern-day Croatia. The buildings were later nicknamed Cacicevi stanovi (Cacic apartments) after him.

After the 2003 election, the HNS returned to the opposition but Cacic retained a seat in the Parliament.

The new HDZ leadership organized a parliamentary investigation panel on Cacic's alleged misdeeds: he was accused of conflict of interest given how his old company Coning was also awarded contracts in building the Zagreb-Split highway. However, after the subsequent inquiry, Cacic was cleared of all charges. In December 2006, the HDZ parliamentary investigation panel again convened and changed its previous decision, saying Cacic was indeed in conflict of interest because of twelve contracts worth 132 million kuna signed with companies with a connection to Cacic, without this connection being properly registered according to relevant law. He in turn insisted that this was a meaningless distinction and that he was already disassociated from his old companies, and tried to get the decision reversed in court, but was rejected by a Zagreb court in 2007. He appealed the verdict and was ultimately rejected by the Constitutional Court of Croatia in 2010.

In 2005 his party won the local elections in the Varazdin County and Cacic became the zupan (prefect) of the county on 9 June. He was replaced in June 2008, after two HNS deputies in the county council switched sides to the opposition.

2010s

On 8 January 2010, he caused a severe traffic accident on the M7 motorway in Hungary which resulted in injuries leading to deaths of two passengers in the car hit. Cacic's Chrysler 300 rear-ended a Skoda Fabia in dense fog. Cacic subsequently called the police. He was charged by a Somogy County court and released on €1,000 bail. Under Hungarian law he now faces a jail sentence. The incident led to Cacic handing in his resignation as president of the Croatian Tennis Association, which was later refused by the federation's governing board.

Cacic represented HNS in the Kukuriku coalition and was the top-listed candidate for the 3rd electoral district at the Croatian parliamentary election, 2011. In the district they won 52.73% of the vote. Following the overall election win, Cacic became a Deputy Prime Minister in the Cabinet of Zoran Milanovic.

On 29 June 2012 the court of first instance found him guilty for the car accident and sentenced him to 1 year and three months on probation. Croatian opposition politicians Tomislav Karamarko, Jadranka Kosor and Dragutin Lesar called for Cacic to resign; members of the ruling coalition Mirela Holy and Josip Leko expressed reservations about the issue. On 14 November 2012 the court of second instance confirmed the verdict and increased his sentence to 22 months in prison. The same day, Cacic resigned from the Croatian Government.

Cacic was ejected from HNS in January 2014. He was released from prison in June 2014 after serving a year out of his 22-month sentence.

On 28 September 2014 he became the first president of the People's Party - Reformists.