Mate Granić

Mate Granić (born September 19 1947) is a Croatian diplomat and politician.

Granić was born in Baška Voda near Makarska, Croatia. He graduated from a gymnasium in Split and the medical faculty of the University of Zagreb to become a doctor by profession.

Granić served as foreign minister from 1993 until 2000. He was a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and a close associate of Franjo Tuđman. As foreign minister, Granić helped negotiate a peace treaty between Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia and he visited Serbia in 1996.

Granić was considered to be a leader of HDZ moderates. His objective as foreign minister was to justify Croatian policies towards Bosnia and Krajina and protecting Croatia from UN sanctions. He did that successfully, which combined with his mild nature made him one of the most popular HDZ politicians.

Therefore, Granić seemed like a natural choice for party's presidential candidate after the Tuđman's death. However, Granić was not a great campaigner nor a natural populist, which probably led to his crushing defeat.

In January 2000, Granić was the HDZ's presidential candidate, and lost the election, coming in third place with 22.5% of the vote. When a new cabinet took office later that month, now with the HDZ without the presidency or control of the Parliament, Granić lost his post as foreign minister.

After 2000, Granić's led a splinter faction of HDZ to form the Democratic Centre (Demokratski Centar). Granić believed that HDZ will be completely overtaken by radicals led by Ivić Pašalić, former Tuđman's interior politics consultant, and that's why he founded a new party.

However, not all moderates followed Granić, and in 2002 they finally won a bitter inner-party struggle with far right. Granić's former protege Ivo Sanader became party's leader, and all that made DC politically undistinctable from HDZ. Therefore, party barely survived 2003 elections, securing only one parliamentary seat, for Vesna Škare Ožbolt who later became Minister of Justice in Sanader's government. Granić left DC and seemingly retired from public life after the election.

In 2004, Granić was arrested under corruption charges, that tarnished his previous image as a politician with clean hands.

Charges were later dismissed, and in 2005, Granić became foreign policy advisor to Croatian Party of Rights. Still regarded as a skilled diplomat, he could hold some high office in future.

Granić is married with three children. His brother Goran Granić is a prominent Croatian politician. Unlike Mate, Goran is a liberal and he served as Ivica Račan's deputy prime minister. He was once a member of Croatian Social Liberal Party, and now he is aligned with Croatian People's Party.