Croatian economist and politician
Ljubo Jurčić (pronounced [ʎǔːbɔ jûːrtʃitɕ]; born 20 March 1954) is a Croatian economist, current president of the Croatian Association of Economists since 2006 and former Minister of Economy from 2002 to 2003.[1][2][3]
Biography
Ljubo Jurčić is a Herzegovinian Croat born in the village of Ružići near Grude, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia. Three of his uncles died in World War II, including one Maksimilijan Jurčić, a Franciscan friar who was killed by Yugoslav Partisans in 1945.[4] He graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Zagreb and became a doctor of economic science.
From July 2002 to December 2003 he served as Economy Minister in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Ivica Račan.[3]
Although he was not a member of the ruling Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) party, he was closely aligned with them as a non-partisan economic expert. As head of SDP's Council for Economy and Development, Jurčić formulated SDP's economic strategy that would be implemented should the party win the 2007 elections.[5] The Social Democrats' Main Committee, following a proposal by party chairman Zoran Milanović, named Jurčić as SDP's candidate for the office of Prime Minister.[6]
On 30 November 2007, this decision was reverted, with the election still running, and he was substituted with Zoran Milanović.[7]
Ljubo Jurčić remained in SDP ranks while still showing his definite non-partisan attitude by publicly defending singer Marko Perković Thompson from accusations that arose after his successful May 2008 concert in Ban Jelačić Square.[8] At the same time, he had been published in and is a member of the editorial board of the left-wing magazine Novi Plamen.[9]
On 12 July 2009, Jurčić contended a party primary to be nominated the SDP candidate for the December 27 presidential elections, but was defeated by the Law professor and musician Ivo Josipović.[10]
In May 2011, Jurčić left SDP and became an independent representative in the Parliament.[11] In September 2011, Jurčić announced that his new party Croatian Economic Initiative (Hrvatska ekonomska inicijativa) would enter into a pre-election coalition with the Bloc Pensioners Together (Blok Umirovljenici zajedno).[12] On 6 October 2011, he signed a formal pre-election coalition agreement with the representatives of the Party of Pensioners and the Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar.[13] By November, they named their coalition "Znati kako" and extended it to include another small party, the Croatian Labour Party.[14] Their election lists failed to enter the parliament.
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Media related to Ljubo Jurčić at Wikimedia Commons