Ivica Ra%C4%8Dan

Ivica Raan was a Croatian politician who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Croatia from 2000 to 2003, heading two centreleft coalition governments. He became the first Prime Minister of Croatia not to be a member of the Croatian Democratic Union, namely the opposition coalition headed by his Social Democratic Party won the 2000 parliamentary election and came to power for the first time since independence. He was the leader of the party, initially called the League of Communists of Croatia from 1989 to 2007. Before becoming Prime Minister he served in the capacity of Leader of the Opposition on two occasions firstly, from the first multiparty elections in May 1990 until the formation of a national unity government under Franjo Greguri in July 1991 and secondly, from his defeat in the 2003 general election by Ivo Sanader until his death onApril 2007.

Raan was born onFebruary 1944 in Ebersbach, Nazi Germany, where his mother was interned in a labor camp during World War II. He and his mother survived the Allied bombing of Dresden and were buried for days in the basement of a collapsed building. After the war, Raan returned to Croatia and spent his childhood and adolescence in Slavonski Brod, before moving to Zagreb and enrolling at the University of Zagreb. In 1970 he graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Law.

Source: Wikipedia