| schema:articleBody
| - Zoran Milanovic, Croatia's former leftist prime minister who was sworn in as the country's new president Tuesday, is an experienced politician who made a comeback after being absent from politics for three years. Intelligent and articulate, the 53-year-old was seen by critics and many Croatians as arrogant and a loner focused on his own ambitions and who lacked the common touch. With a serious manner, Milanovic has struggled in the past to woo ordinary voters. But analysts say that during his absence from politics, Milanovic had time to review his wrong moves, and returned as an experienced, calmer politician who is managing, at least for now, to keep his sometimes explosive temper under control. At a modest inauguration ceremony, like during election campaign, he pledged tolerance and to turn the page on the country's wartime past. "The wars are over," Milanovic said in a reference to Croatia's 1990s independence war, part of the collapse of Yugoslavia. "Today ... no Croatian citizen should feel frightened, discriminated or in any way excluded due to being different." When he was named prime minister in 2011, aged 45, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was perceived by many as a promising young politician, free of the corruption plaguing the rival conservative HDZ party. But his government, which led Croatia into European Union in 2013, failed to live up to expectations on much-needed reforms, perpetuating widespread patronage and poor economic trends. His SDP lost power following 2015 elections and Milanovic stepped down as party chief after he failed again in the following year's snap vote. He has since been running a management consultant company whose clients have included Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, according to media reports. Milanovic threw his hat in the presidential race last June, running as a "President with Character" in a cheeky allusion to his reputation for being stubborn. He has previously described himself as having a "leftist heart and conservative head", but has been criticised for a standoffish approach to rivals and the media. In the campaign he promised to make Croatia a "normal, decent" liberal democracy, with an equal society and independent judiciary. Born in Zagreb in 1966, Milanovic was a top law student. An avid amateur boxer in his twenties he never took part in matches preferring to remain a sparring partner. He joined the foreign ministry during the former Yugoslav republic's 1990s independence war. Afterwards Milanovic served for three years with Croatia's European Union and NATO mission in Brussels and eventually joined the SDP in 1999. He saw the party as the perfect counterweight to the 'rural' values promoted by the then ruling HDZ, whose nationalist leader Franjo Tudjman died in December 1999. Milanovic was elected head of the SDP in mid-2007 as successor to his mentor Ivica Racan, a former prime minister who died of cancer. In his spare time he likes to go running or cycling. Milanovic is married to a doctor and has two sons. ljv/pma
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)