Ivo Sanader

Ivo Sanader (born 8 June 1953) is a Croatian former politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2003 to 2009.

He is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption in Remetinec prison.

Following his return from Rome he met Mirjana Šarić, whom he married in 1978.

After their wedding, Ivo and Mirjana, and Ivo's younger brother Miro left Split for Innsbruck, Austria.

His wife studied archaeology, while Ivo studied comparative literature and Romance languages at the University of Innsbruck.

During that time, Sanader worked as a correspondent for the Zagreb sport newspaper Sportske novosti.

In 1982, Sanader received his PhD degree, and returned to Croatia (then Yugoslavia) with his wife.

He found a job in the marketing department of Dalmacijaturist (Dalmatia Tourist), for a brief period, followed by a lengthy period at the publishing house Logos from 1983, initially as a program editor.

In 1987, Sanader decided to return to Austria with his family, where he co-founded two businesses, one in 1989 which was liquidated by a court in 1992, while the other existed between 1986 and 2001.

In 1988 he became a chief editor, at one time working on the magazine Mogućnosti (Possibilities).

His career at the publishing house was later terminated.

At that time, his wife also received a notice of termination from her workplace.

In the 1990s, he was briefly the intendant of the Croatian National Theatre in Split before becoming Minister for Science and Technology as a member of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in the cabinet of Hrvoje Šarinić in 1992.

Failure of his businesses prompted Sanader to enter politics in the 1990s.

Apart from his native Croatian, he is fluent in English, German, French, and Italian.

Unlike many Croatian political figures of Sanader's generation, he was not actively involved in politics in his younger years – neither as a member of the League of Communists of Croatia (Croatia's party which formed the single bloc which governed Yugoslavia), nor as a dissident in exile.

In October 1990, after multi-party system had returned to Yugoslavia, he founded the Tirol branch of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in Austria, and established contact with Franjo Tuđman.

Sanader's organizational skills, erudition, and fluency in German left a favorable impression on HDZ members with whom he collaborated in Austria.

He decided to return to Split, over the objections of his wife who saw war in Croatia looming.

His first public office was intendant of the Croatian National Theatre in Split.

In 1993, he moved into diplomacy and served two terms as Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Following the death of Franjo Tuđman, Sanader was elected president of the HDZ in 2000, and again in 2002, and led the party to victory in the 2003, and 2007 elections, becoming Croatia's Prime Minister.

He is one of only two Croatian prime ministers (along with Andrej Plenković) who have served more than one term, winning general elections in 2003 and 2007.

He is also, along with Ivica Račan and Plenković, one of the three prime ministers who have been at the head of more than one government cabinet, chairing his first cabinet from 23 December 2003 until 12 January 2008, and his second cabinet from 12 January 2008 until his resignation on 6 July 2009.

Sanader obtained his education in comparative literature in Austria, where he also worked as a journalist, in marketing, publishing, and as an entrepreneur.

Sanader is to date the second longest-serving prime minister since independence, holding the office for over five and a half years before resigning in July 2009.

In June 2009, he abruptly resigned his post, leaving scarce explanation for his actions and disappearing from public life for a while.

In January 2010, he tried to stage a political comeback within the HDZ, but was ejected from party membership.

In December 2010, Croatian authorities indicted Sanader in two high-profile corruption cases.

He fled the country but was apprehended in Austria and then extradited to Croatia in July 2011.

In November 2012, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a first instance verdict, later reduced to 8 1⁄2 years, for funneling 10.4 million euros in public money to the Fimi Media company.

However, his sentence was annulled by Croatia's Constitutional Court in 2015.

With the exception of numerous Croatian officials who were sentenced to imprisonment during the existence of the socialist Yugoslavia, he is the first Croatian head of government and highest ranking state official to be tried and sentenced to a jail term.

In October 2018, Sanader was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for war profiteering and must return $570,000 in kickbacks from Hypo Bank.

In November 2020, he was sentenced to eight years in jail for his role in a retrial of the Fimi Media case.

Some Croatian journalists evaluate Sanader's leadership of Croatia as a "kleptocratic-clientelistic era".

Sanader was born in Split to a poor, religious, working-class family originating from Dugobabe, a village in the Split hinterland.

He was one of five children so, as his family was financially unable to support their education, his mother asked the rector of the Archbishopric Classical Gymnasium to accept Ivo as a student.

At the gymnasium, Sanader distinguished himself as one of the top students, excelling in history and languages.

After completing high school, Sanader spent one year in Rome studying philosophy.