April the 15th, 2024 – Josip Manolic, Croatia’s longest lived politician and subject of many comparisons, has passed away in his 105th year of life.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Josip Manolic was born on March the 22nd, 1920 in Kalinovac. He was a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia beginning in 1939, participated in the anti-fascist war as of 1941, and after the Second World War, he was involved in internal affairs. He graduated from the Zagreb Law School in 1960.
Household name Josip Manolic was, together with the first Croatian president Dr. Franjo Tudjman, one of the founders of the HDZ party back in 1989. He fought for the formation of an independent and sovereign Croatian state, and was also the first president of its Executive Board, then in 1990-93, the vice president of HDZ.
In the elections that took place in 1990 and 1992, he was elected as a member of the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia. He was Vice-President of the Presidency of the Republic of Croatia (1990), Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia (1990–91), President of the Crisis Staff of the Republic of Croatia, and Head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (1991–93).
By the time 1994 rolled around, the already very seasoned Josip Manolic parted ways with HDZ and founded the Croatian Independent Democrats party, of which he was vice-president and president. In 2015, he published the autobiographical book “Politics and Homeland: My Struggle for a Sovereign and Social Croatia”.
Josip Manolic has been the subject of many memes, comparisons, and awe at his long and rich life. May he rest in peace.
