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Ivica Račan (born February 24, 1944) is a Croatian left-wing politician, and the Prime Minister of Croatia from 2000 to 2003.
He was born in Ebersbach, Germany, where his mother was interned in the labor camp. He and his mother survived Allied bombing of Dresden in 1945, where they were buried for days in the basement of a collapsed building.
During socialist Yugoslavia, Račan was a member of the League of Communists of Croatia. In 1970s he gradually rose through the ranks of Party and Nomenklatura, following the purge of reformists after collapse of Croatian Spring. By the end of 1980s he emerged as one of Party's leaders. He became its leader in 1989.
Račan led the Croatian delegation in the crucial congress of the Communist Parties of Yugoslavia which was held at the end of January 1990. The congress was dominated by Slobodan Milošević's supporters and Slovenian and Croatian delegations were continually voted down. Finally the Slovenian delegation declared they were leaving the party. Milošević tried to pressure Račan to stay, but Račan replied that a Communist Party without the Slovenes was not acceptable. Without the Croatian delegation it was impossible to reconvene the congress. (Adam Le Bor: Milošević)
Račan broke other taboos of Communist Yugoslavia, too: he was the first president of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia who publicly congratulated Christmas to believers in Croatia in 1989, and he had the first free elections organized a few months later.
Following the fall of Communism, he became the leader of the reformed League of Communists of Croatia (renamed The Party of Democratic Change). During the campaign for multi-party elections of 1990 Račan created a storm of controversy when he referred to the Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica or HDZ in Croatian), the eventual winner of the elections, as a party of dangerous intentions.
His Party lost the election, but remained the second largest party in new Parliament, and Račan was supposed to continue his political career, this time the first leader of opposition in history of modern Croatia. SKH however, quickly became the shadow of its former self - the majority of its membership, including the highest ranking officials, defected to HDZ, while the collapse of Yugoslavia, ethnic Serb rebellion and war further radicalised Croatian public. In such circumstances, Račan was more concerned with the mere survival of his Party than with challenging Tudjman's rule, even if it meant tolerating some of Tudjman's more controversial policies, like privatisation or various human rights abuses.
In such circumstances, when his party used to be ironically called "HDZ Little Sister", Račan gave up the opposition leader's title to Dražen Budiša of Croatian Social Liberal Party. SDP barely managed to pass the threshold in 1992 parliamentary elections, but it established itself as a socialdemocratic option. Račan continued to reform the SDP, purging it of hard leftists and communist ideology. In 1994 SDP incorporated Social Democrats of Croatia and became an alternative to Tudjman.
Following the end of war Croatian voters were becoming more concerned with social issues, and in such circumstances SDP gradually began to consolidate support at the expense of other opposition parties, most notably HSLS. This became evident at 1995 parliamentary and 1997 presidential elections. In 1998 Račan and Budiša created alliance that would win parliamentary elections two years later.
Following the election, Račan became the prime minister of Croatia with the help of HSLS, and the centrist bloc which comprises Croatian Peasants Party (HSS), the Liberal Party (LS), Croatian People's Party (HNS), Istrian Democratic Congress (IDS). All of those six parties had ministers within Račan's cabinet.
Račan, like the newly elected president Stjepan Mesić, was initially hailed as the new, reformist leader that would symbolise the break with authoritarian and nationalist past. While a democrat Račan was, however, inefficient in running a government comprising six parties, the first coalition in modern Croatian history. His style of governance, symbolised with the phrase "Odlučno možda" ("Decisive perhaps" in English), plagued his government with factional struggles.
This led to the break-up with Budiša who took more nationalist approach in dealing with the issues of ICTY indictments against Croatian Army generals. This rift began to affect Račan's government in other issues.
Račan briefly resigned on July 5, 2002 after their coalition partner HSLS obstructed the ratification of a vital agreement with Slovenia on the status of the co-owned nuclear power plant in Krško. The HSLS later split into the main faction that left the government and a dissenting faction that formed a new party called Libra which enabled Račan to form a slightly modified government that would remain in power until the next elections.
His center-left coalition lost the parliamentary majority with the elections of November 2003. Ivica Račan ceased to be the prime minister on December 23, 2003 when Croatian Parliament gave its consent for his successor, Ivo Sanader of the Croatian Democratic Union.
SDP is currently the most popular party in opinion polls, and Ivica Račan was, until recently. viewed as the leader of Croatian opposition. While viewed indecisive as prime minister, he proved to be very skillful in his party maintaining the leadership position for fifteen years. Račan publicly stated that this was his last term as the party president, and observers see former defence minister Željka Antunović as his successor.
Ivica Račan was married three times and has two sons from his first marriage.
On January 31st 2007, Ivica Račan announced that he was leaving politics due to health reasons. Željka Antunović took the chairmanship of the Party.