Jadranka Kosor

Jadranka Kosor (born 1 July 1953) is a Croatian politician and former journalist who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2009 to 2011, having taken office following the sudden resignation of her predecessor Ivo Sanader.

Kosor was the first and so far only woman to become Prime Minister of Croatia since independence.

Kosor started working as a journalist, following her graduation from the Zagreb Faculty of Law.

During the Croatian War of Independence, she hosted a radio show dealing with refugee problems and disabled war veterans.

In 1971, her book of poetry Koraci was published by the Pakrac branch of Matica hrvatska.

During the Croatian War of Independence, she worked as a radio-journalist and her show exploited war topics such as refugee problems and disabled war veterans.

She also worked briefly as a correspondent for the BBC during this time.

She studied in Zagreb, where she graduated in law and began working as a journalist from 1972 as a correspondent for Večernji list and Radio Zagreb.

She joined the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989 and quickly climbed up the party hierarchy.

In 1995 she was elected party vice-president and was elected to serve in Parliament for the first time.

In 1995, Kosor became a representative in the Croatian Parliament as a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

She was also the vice-president of the Croatian Parliament.

Kosor was the vice-president of the HDZ party between 1995 and 1997, and from 2002 up to 2009 when she became the president of the party.

From 1999 to 2000, she was president of the HDZ's Women's Association Katarina Zrinski.

After the death of president and longtime HDZ leader Franjo Tuđman, Kosor supported Ivo Sanader's successful party leadership bid in 2000.

Three years later, her party won the parliamentary election and Kosor became the Minister of Family, Veterans' Affairs and Inter-generational Solidarity in the Sanader first and, later, Sanader second cabinet, during which time she served as deputy prime minister as well.

She is credited with the number of female candidates from the HDZ in the 2000 elections doubling.

In 2003, she became the minister in the Croatian department for Family, Veterans and Inter-generational Solidarity in the Croatian Government of Ivo Sanader.

In the 2005 presidential election she ran as a representative of the HDZ, but lost to incumbent President Stjepan Mesić in the second round.

HDZ nominated her as their presidential candidate for the presidential election of 2005.

In the first round, she overtook Boris Mikšić by a few percent to reach the second place.

She then faced off Stipe Mesić in the second round, but lost.

After the abrupt resignation of Sanader, Kosor managed to form a functioning parliamentary majority and was approved to her new post as prime minister in July 2009, also becoming leader of her party.

Kosor was the party's candidate for prime minister in the 2011 general election, but HDZ lost in a landslide over the centre-left Kukuriku coalition, led by the Social Democratic Party.

Kosor handed power to the new Prime Minister, Zoran Milanović, in December 2011.

As prime minister, Kosor failed to commit to structural reforms although she managed to prevent the country's budgetary meltdown with two budget revisions and the introduction of new taxes as a response to the ongoing economic crisis.

During her tenure, she strongly advocated a zero-tolerance policy to political corruption and organized crime.

This uncompromising stance, along with the new criminal code passed before her term began, opened the door to unprecedented efforts to combat corruption.

This resulted in numerous arrests of influential business-people and politicians from across the political spectrum, although most of them members of HDZ, which severely damaged the party's reputation.

The discoveries made by prosecutors were far-reaching and criminal charges were even raised against former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polančec, who would later be charged with lengthy prison sentences for criminal activity and abuse of power.

In foreign policy, Kosor and her Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor were successful in solving the long-standing border dispute and she is credited with successfully finishing the negotiating process of the Croatian accession to the European Union.

On 9 December 2011, she and President Ivo Josipović signed the EU Treaty of Accession in Brussels.

A moderate conservative, Kosor ran for another term as party leader after losing the election, however, was defeated by the more conservative Tomislav Karamarko.

After months of criticizing his leadership and the new party platform, she was expelled from HDZ by the party's High Court for damaging the party's reputation.

In 2021, Kosor was awarded with the Grand Order of Queen Jelena with Sash and Morning Star by President of Croatia Zoran Milanović for "extraordinary contribution to the international position and reputation of the Republic of Croatia" and for "the development of relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian people and other states and peoples."

Jadranka Kosor was born in Lipik to Zorica Belan and Mirko Kosor.

She finished primary education in Pakrac.

Her parents divorced when she was two, and she spent her childhood living with her grandmother.

Her childhood friends describe her as a pretty, smart, and sociable girl that loved poetry and wrote songs.

She contested on beauty pageant and was selected runner up for Miss Swimming Pool of Lipik.