Mate Granić

Mate Granić (born 19 September 1947[1]) is a Croatian diplomat and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Government of Croatia from 1993 to 2000.

Mate Granić
6th Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
28 May 1993  27 January 2000
Prime MinisterNikica Valentić
Zlatko Mateša
DeputyIvo Sanader
Preceded byZdenko Škrabalo
Succeeded byTonino Picula
Personal details
Born (1947-09-19) 19 September 1947
Baška Voda, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia
NationalityCroatian
Political partyCroatian Democratic Union (1989–2000, 2020–present)
Other political
affiliations
Democratic Centre (2000–2003)
Spouse(s)Jadranka Granić
Alma materUniversity of Zagreb
(School of Medicine)

Biography

Granić was born in Baška Voda[1] in Dalmatia (then PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia). He graduated from a gymnasium in Split and the medical faculty of the University of Zagreb to become a doctor by profession. He specialized in internal medicine.[1]

Mate Granić served as the foreign minister of Croatia from 1993 until 2000. He was a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and a close associate of Franjo Tuđman. As foreign minister, in 1995 Granić helped negotiate the Dayton Agreement,[1] a peace treaty between Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia and he visited Serbia in 1996.

Granić was considered to be a leader of the HDZ center-reformist wing. His objective as foreign minister was to defend Croatian policies concerning its occupied territories and towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as protecting Croatia from UN sanctions.

His reformist views made him an opportunistic choice for party's presidential candidate after the Tuđman's death. In January 2000, Granić entered the presidential election, but was eliminated in the first round, coming in third place with 22.5% of the vote. He was not a great campaigner nor a natural populist, which probably led to his defeat.

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

However, not all reformists followed Granić, and in 2002 they finally won a bitter inner-party struggle with the tudjmanists. Granić's former protégé Ivo Sanader became party's leader, and all that made DC politically indistinct from HDZ. As a result, the party barely survived 2003 elections, securing only one parliamentary seat, for Vesna Škare-Ožbolt who later became the Minister of Justice in Sanader's government.

Granić left DC and seemingly retired from public life after the election. In 2004 he founded a consulting company called MAGRA Ltd. in Zagreb. In 2005, he became a special advisor to the presidency of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP).

In the 2007 parliamentary election he headed the HSP election list in the 3rd election unit. The list failed to attain a seat in the Parliament.

In March 2020, Granić returned to the Croatian Democratic Union.[2]

Granić is married with three children.[1] His brother Goran Granić is a prominent Croatian politician, but unlike Mate, Goran is a liberal.

References

Political offices
Preceded by
Zdenko Škrabalo
Minister of Foreign Affairs
1993–2000
Succeeded by
Tonino Picula
Party political offices
Preceded by
Office created
000President of the Democratic Centre000
2000–2003
Succeeded by
Vesna Škare-Ožbolt
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