After 6 weeks of negotiations, Croatia finally finds out the name of the Prime Minister Designate
Habemus Papam…..ooops. I meant to say we have a Prime Minister designate!
After 6 weeks of rollercoaster negotiations, twists, turns, accusations, cheap shots, name calling and a partridge in a pear tree, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović finally designated Tihomir Orešković, former pharmaceutical executive, to become the new Croatian Prime Minister on December 23, 2015.
“I have concluded the last round of consultations. At the very end of this process, Mr Orešković convinced me that he has the support of 78 parliamentary deputies and proved it with their signatures. Therefore, in accordance with my constitutional duty, I hereby give him the mandate to constitute the new Government. I am scheduling the constituent session of the Parliament for December 28, 2015 at noon” President Grabar Kitarović announced.
Now that we have the name, and truth be told, most Croatians have never heard of Tihomir Orešković before today, let’s meet the man of the hour and wish him luck on his endeavour to win the approval for his cabinet in the parliament in the next 30 days.
Born in 1966 in Zagreb, currently residing in Amsterdam, Tihomir or Tim Orešković as he is listed on LinkedIn, got his Batchelor of Science in Chemistry from McMaster University in Canada in 1991 and an MBA in finances and IT in 1992 at the same University. His last appointment was in the pharmaceutical industry since he was the CFO of Teva’s Global Generic Medicines. During his time in Pliva and Teva he rarely gave interviews, and in the very few interviews that did see the light of day, he often criticized the famed Croatian bureaucracy. Even though his business track record is stellar without any doubt, regardless of the fact that media is now dragging up the questionable sale of Pliva to Teva and the issue of Teva extracting millions from Croatia without paying taxes, Tihomir Orešković has absolutely no political experience.
Furthermore, as we were able to see and hear during his first address, he has a very poor command of the Croatian language, a fact that set both Facebook and Twitter ablaze just seconds after he finished his last sentence. Considering he was born in Croatia, spent his formative years in Zagreb, worked in Pliva and Teva’s Zagreb office between 2009 and 2015, and especially because, as we all found out today, he has been an ace up HDZ’s sleeve for the last 6 months, one would think future PM would take the time to brush up on his native tongue.
But all that aside, we sincerely wish him the best of luck in forming the new Croatian government, one that will have the strength and the wisdom to help the country in these times of economic downfall and an all-out crisis. As he said in his address, just before he called us buildings instead of citizens (građevine, građani, yes we know Croatian is one very difficult language – see the address in the video below) “I will invest all my knowledge and effort to form a good government and to start resolving this country’s problems. I invite the parliamentary majority and the opposition to support me on that quest, I know we don’t have time for the standard 100 days and I am not asking for them. Our only goal is to work together towards a better future for all of us”.
Photo credits: Official Facebook page Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, LinkedIn, Teva
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5EkAZdwYoE
