ZAGREB, February 18, 2020 – Zoran Milanović will be sworn in as the fifth President of Croatia at a low-key ceremony starting at noon on Tuesday in the President’s Office in Zagreb’s Pantovčak neighbourhood and not in Saint Mark’s Square as has been the tradition so far.
There will be a total of 43 guests, the lowest number to date, including state officials, Milanović’s family and members of his campaign team. It will be the first time that a presidential inauguration is not attended by party leaders, diplomats and church dignitaries.
Attending will be the outgoing President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, the two previous presidents Stjepan Mesić and Ivo Josipović, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and the five deputy speakers, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and three of his deputies (Finance Minister Zdravko Marić is away on business), Constitutional Court President Miroslav Šeparović, and the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Mirko Šundov. Nineteen members of Milanovic’s campaign team will also be present at the event.
The ceremony will begin with the performance of the national anthem by Croatian pop and jazz diva Josipa Lisac, accompanied by pianist Zvjezdan Ružić.
The first part of the ceremony will include the oath of office and the President’s speech. An a cappella vocal group of the Croatian Navy will perform singer Vice Vukov’s song “Tvoja zemlja” (Your Country).
After that, there will be a short cocktail followed by the transfer of power ceremony.
The event will be followed by 250 representatives of the media, including 66 accredited journalists, far more than the number of guests.
Milanović was elected in a runoff election on 5 January, beating the incumbent Grabar-Kitarović. He received 1,034,389 votes and she 929,488.
Milanović was the prime minister from 2011 to January 2016 as the Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader. He took the helm of the SDP in 2007 and stepped down in 2016 after the party lost the 2015 parliamentary election.
Milanović was born on 30 October 1966 in Zagreb where he grew up and went to school. After graduating from the Zagreb Faculty of Law, he became an intern at the Zagreb Commercial Court, and then at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993. The following year he joined an Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to war-torn Nagorno Karabakh (Azerbaijan). In 1996 he was appointed an adviser at Croatia’s mission to the EU and NATO in Brussels where he obtained his post-graduate degrees in European and Comparative Law in 1998.
In 2004 Milanović left his position as assistant foreign minister and, at the invitation of the then leader of the SDP Ivica Račan, became a member of the party’s executive committee and secretary for international relations. After Račan’s death in April 2007, Milanović was elected the party’s president in June of the same year, beating his rivals Željka Antunović, Milan Bandić and Tonino Picula.
In 2007, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won a parliamentary election once again and Milanović became the leader of the opposition as the SDP’s president and chairman of the party’s group in the Croatian parliament.
During the election campaign for the 2011 parliamentary election he signed a coalition agreement with the Croatian People’s Party (HNS), Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) and Croatian Pensioners’ Party (HSS), which was dubbed the Kukuriku (Cock-a-Doodle-Do) Coalition. On 4 December that year, the coalition won the election, securing 80 seats (an absolute majority) in parliament. After losing the 2015 parliamentary election Milanović stepped down as the leader of the SDP and started a private consulting company. He announced running for president in June 2019.
Milanović is married to Sanja Milanović, an epidemiologist, and they have two sons.
More news about Zoran Milanović can be found in the Politics section.
