Hrvoje Šarinić

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hrvoje Šarinić (born March 17, 1935) is a Croatian politician.

Before the first democratic elections in Croatia, Šarinić had a business career in Paris, France. He is a dual citizen of both Croatia and of France. After the elections he joined the government of Franjo Tudjman and became head of his personal office.

After the parliamentary elections of 1992 he, as member of Croatian Democratic Union, was appointed to the post of prime minister.

His cabinet, like all in Tudjman years, was less concerned with foreign policy and war and more with domestic issues. One of those issues was privatisation of state-owned companies. During his time many of the most controversial events of that process took place, including the now infamous takeover of Slobodna Dalmacija in early 1993.

By that time Croatian economy continued to decline, Šarinić himself became immensely unpopular and even his native Primorje-Gorski Kotar County rejected HDZ at local elections in February 1993. All that, together with escalating war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, led Tudjman to replace him with Nikica Valentić.

Šarinić was not demoted, however. He continued to serve as Tudjman's close advisor and was, for a while, head of Croatian security services.

He remained in public spotlight because of his diplomatic missions and frequent negotiations with Slobodan Milošević. After one of those missions he created great deal of controversy by claiming that one of the results of former Yugoslav wars should be "little Greater Serbia".

By the end of 1990s, he was gradually pushed from Tudjman's inner circle.

Languages