Jadranka Kosor

Jadranka Kosor
Kosor in 2010
Prime Minister of Croatia
In office 6 July 2009 – 23 December 2011
President	Stjepan Mesić Ivo Josipović
Deputy	Slobodan Uzelac Božidar Pankretić Darko Milinović Domagoj Ivan Milošević Petar Čobanković Gordan Jandroković
Preceded by	Ivo Sanader
Succeeded by	Zoran Milanović
Minister of Family, Veterans' Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity
In office 23 December 2003 – 6 July 2009
Prime Minister	Ivo Sanader
Preceded by	Ivica Pančić
Succeeded by	Tomislav Ivić
Further offices held Leader of the Opposition In office 23 December 2011 – 21 May 2012 Prime Minister Zoran Milanović Preceded by Zoran Milanović Succeeded by Tomislav Karamarko President of the Croatian Democratic Union In office 4 July 2009 – 21 May 2012 Deputy Darko Milinović Preceded by Ivo Sanader Succeeded by Tomislav Karamarko Member of Parliament In office 23 December 2011 – 28 December 2015 Constituency V electoral district In office 2 February 2000 – 22 December 2003 Constituency V electoral district In office 28 November 1995[1] – 2 February 2000 Preceded by Branko Mikša Succeeded by District abolished Constituency XXVI electoral district
Personal details
Born	(1953-07-01) 1 July 1953 (age 71) Lipik, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia
Political party	Independent (2013–2015; 2015–present)
Other political affiliations	SKH (until 1990) HDZ (1995–2013) Successful Croatia (2015)
Spouses	Hrvoje Markulj ​ ​ (m. 1977; div. 1981)​ Ivo Škopljanac ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 1993)​
Children	1
Parents	Mirko Kosor Zorica Belan
Alma mater	University of Zagreb
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Jadranka Kosor (Croatian pronunciation: [jǎdraːnka kɔ̂sɔr]; 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.^[2]

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. 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. 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's first and, later, Sanader's second cabinet, during which time she served as deputy prime minister as well. In the 2005 presidential election she ran as a representative of the HDZ, but lost to incumbent president Stjepan Mesić in the second round. 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 arrests of numerous influential business-people and politicians from across the political spectrum, although most of them were 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."^[3]