Ivić Pašalić

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ivić Pašalić (born November 3, 1960 in Šuica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia) is a Croatian right-wing politician.

Pašalić was a physician in Zagreb before the arrival of democracy in Croatia. In 1990 he joined the Croatian Democratic Union and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the party's general secretary. He also became one of the senior advisors to President Franjo Tudjman, taking the charge of domestic policies. From those lofty positions Pašalić was able to influence most of personnel policies in Croatia and he took great pains to ensure that each and every public institution in the country comes under direct control of HDZ. Pašalić was quite open about it, especially in the case of judiciary when he stated that "judiciary has a task of enforcing national policies".

Such a privileged position within Tudjman's inner circle created a lot of envy and many enemies within HDZ. In late 1990s, with Tudjman's health deteriorating and HDZ gradually being consumed by factional struggles, Pašalić became target of a media campaign linking him to Miroslav Kutle and other most notorious figures of Croatian 1990s privatisation. Direct allegations against Pašalić were never proven, but his reputation was hurt in the process.

After death of Franjo Tudjman and defeat of HDZ at 2000 parliamentary elections, Pašalić became rallying figure for all HDZ hardliners dissatisfied with increasingly moderate course of new HDZ leader Ivo Sanader. In 2002 Pašalić formally challenged Sanader for party leadership and this led to one of the most dramatic party conventions in recent Croatian history. At first, Pašalić had the upper hand, but in the end a section of party hardliners like Branimir Glavaš opted for Sanader, which led to Pašalić's defeat.

After accusing Sanader of winning through illegal means, Pašalić formed his own party called Croatian Bloc (HB). The party was doomed from the moment it became likely that HDZ would win 2003 parliamentary elections. Many of Sanader's bitter critics left HB in order re-join HDZ, while even the most hard-line nationalist voters referred to vote HDZ rather than allow left-wing Social Democratic Party of Croatia to remain in power. As a result, HB failed to win a single seat.

During 2005 presidential elections Ivić Pašalić ran as HB candidate, finishing 7th.