Zdravko Tomac
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(January 2020) |
Zdravko Tomac | |
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 Tomac on 6 September 2013 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 May 1937 Garčin,Yugoslavia (now Garčin,Croatia) |
| Died | 4 January 2020(aged 82) Zagreb,Croatia |
| Political party | League of Communists of Croatia(until1991) Social Democratic Party of Croatia(until2003) |
Zdravko Tomac(24 May 1937 – 4 January 2020) was aCroatianpolitician.
A native ofSlavonski Brod,Zdravko Tomac began his political career in theCommunist Party of Yugoslavia.There he rose through the ranks, becoming a close associate ofJakov Blažević.In late 1980s he became one of the chief ideologists of theLeague of Communists of Croatiaand one of the closest associates ofIvica Račan.
After the Croatian Communist Party rebranded itself intoSocial Democratic Party of Croatiaand lost the 1990 parliamentary elections, Tomac worked very hard to steer the party towards the nationalist course close toFranjo Tuđmanand the rulingCroatian Democratic Union.Because of that, Tomac became deputy prime minister in the wartime "National Unity" government ofFranjo Gregurić,thus becoming one of the first top Communist officials inEastern Europeto return to a top executive post after the fall of theBerlin Wall.He served as deputy prime minister from August 1991 to June 1992.[1]
Because of that, many in the Croatian public saw Tomac as just another of many former Communist officials who discarded their former ideology in order to embraceCroatian nationalism.The only difference was in Tomac choosing to remain within the former Communist Party. This served the SDP very well, which made Tomac into one of their most prominent members and thus gained enough nationalist credentials to improve its electoral chances in the long run.
Tomac showed this potential in the1995 Croatian parliamentary electionby winning aSaborseat in Zagreb and later serving as a Zagreb City Assembly speaker and informal opposition leader during theZagreb Crisis.
Two years later he ran as an SDP candidate at the1997 Croatian presidential election.Although Tomac failed to unseat Tuđman, he scored an important victory for himself and his party by finishing second with 21.0% of the vote.[2]He came out on top of former dissidentVladimir Gotovacand theCroatian Social Liberal Party.With the SDP established as the top opposition party in Croatia, it had the upper hand in the negotiations that would lead to the 1998 pre-election pact with HSLS and victory at the2000 Croatian parliamentary election.
The 2000 triumph proved to be the beginning of Tomac's political decline. Soon after the parliamentary elections, Croatia hadelections for president.The SDP endorsedDražen Budišaas its candidate and appointed Tomac to be his campaign manager. What looked like a formality turned into a very unpredictable and increasingly vicious contest whenStjepan Mesićjoined the fray. When the contest got narrowed to Budiša and Mesić, Tomac began to pander to nationalist and right-wing voters. This didn't have much effect and Mesić got easily elected, with Tomac's position within the party and the new government becoming increasingly marginalised.
As time went by, Tomac began to drift from Račan and the SDP. He began to criticiseICTYand bitterly oppose extradition of Croatian generals to Hague. Finally, in September 2003 he formally announced his departure from the SDP.[3]
He founded a new party called Croatian Social Democrats (Croatian:Hrvatski socijaldemokrati), but this party, even after being allied with a few small right-wing parties, failed to enter the Zagreb City Assembly in the 2005 local elections.
On January 4, 2020, Tomac died in Dubrava Clinical Hospital after a short, severe illness.[4]
Works[edit]
- Predsjednik protiv predsjednika,2005
- Tuđmanizam i mesićizam - predsjednik protiv predsjednika, 2. dio,2007
- Obraćenje - od komunista do vjernika,2008
References[edit]
- ^Sabrina P. Ramet,The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918-2004.Indiana University Press, 2006. (p. 399)
- ^Peter Rutland,The challenge of integration.M.E. Sharpe, 1998. (p. 183)
- ^"Zdravko Tomac istupio iz SDP-a i dao ostavku na sve stranačke dužnosti".www.index.hr(in Croatian).
- ^"UMRO POZNATI POLITIČAR: Zdravko otišao posle KRATKE I TEŠKE BOLESTI".Espreso.rs(in Serbian).
External links[edit]
Media related toZdravko Tomacat Wikimedia Commons
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