Ivo Sanader

Sanader is to date the second longest-serving prime minister since Croatia's independence, holding the office for over five and a half years before resigning in July 2009. He is one of only two Croatian prime ministers (along with Andrej Plenković) who have served more than one term, winning the 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. 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 in the cabinet of Hrvoje Šarinić in 1992. 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. 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 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 ordered to 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".

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