La vita e bella, non e?
Weatherman
ZAGREB, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Saved from a Nazi labour camp as a baby,
almost killed in a car crash, cast into the political wilderness for
nearly a decade only to bounce back -- Croatia's new Prime Minister
Ivica Racan is a survivor.
On Thursday, the 55-year-old former communist leader was given the task
of forming a new government following his centre-left's historic
general election victory on January 3.
At the head of a coalition of six parties, Racan faces the daunting
twin tasks of improving Croatia's dire international standing and
reviving its sagging economy.
Friends and foes alike have high hopes that the experienced career
politician will, if nothing else, serve as a guarantor of stability for
the small Balkan state.
"Racan is a pragmatic old fox, an evolutionary but not a
revolutionary," one of his nationalist rivals said recently in a
private conversation.
Racan gained fame in 1990 as the man who helped rid Zagreb of the yoke
of former Yugoslav communist domination.
The end of the old system opened the way for a decade of rule by the
late Franjo Tudjman and his nationalist HDZ party, almost spelling
disaster for his own reformed Communist party.
But within a month of Tudjman's death, Racan was back in the limelight.
He led his Social Democrats and an alliance of centre-left parties to
an emphatic election victory.
BORN IN NAZI CAMP
Racan was born in Nazi Germany in 1944.
His parents were sent to the Ebersbach labour camp after being arrested
in occupied Croatia and his father died there.
A local German family took pity on his mother and let her move into
their farm, where she gave birth to Racan. After the war the pair went
home to Croatia.
As a youth Racan got interested in acting, but after failing to win
admission to a drama academy, he studied law and then embarked on a
career in politics.
He headed the Croatian Communist Party's central committee in 1989-90,
just before the winds of change started blowing across Eastern Europe
and the Balkans.
He renamed the party, overhauled its programme and took the bold
decision to allow multi-party elections in Croatia while it was still a
part of the Yugoslav federation.
His party was swept away by an avalanche of nationalist sentiment and
barely made it to parliament in subsequent elections as Tudjman
strengthened his grip on the country.
Racan was already used to picking up the pieces and starting from
scratch.
A car crash in the 1970s left him seriously injured. He had to learn to
walk, read and write all over again.
"Since then I have taken my role in life a little less seriously and am
not obsessed with the sense of having a mission," he has said.
During the recent general election campaign Tudjman's hardline Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) tried to tarnish his image by portraying him as
an old-fashioned "red."
But the bearded Racan doggedly stuck to his task, working hard to boost
his appeal with younger voters.
Two years ago he stunned this Roman Catholic country by admitting he
had taken light drugs in his youth. During the general election
campaign he played on his footloose student past and appeared at rock
concerts to give fiery speeches.
On a more serious note, he has said that he embraced the market economy
and told Reuters in a recent interview that he wanted to bring Croatia
closer to Europe, boost employment and improve living standards.
"It is time to say goodbye to the past and focus on current problems
and the future, because I do believe Croatia has a future," he said
earlier this month.
Copyright 1999 Reuters.All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Before you buy.
Zoran Ostric
<86sao1$7ol$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
> Newsmaker-Reformed Communist Racan Is Croatia PM
>
> ZAGREB, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Saved from a Nazi labour camp as a baby,
> the small Balkan state.
Zaustavite Reuters! :-))
--
Mir i dobro,
Zoran O.
**************************************************************
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
YEAH! They're full of passion, and intensity...
(George R.R. Martin: "Armagedon Rag")