Jadranka Kosor (Croatian pronunciation: [jǎdraːnka kɔ̂sɔr]; born 1 July 1953) is a Croatian politician and former journalist who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2009 to 2011, having taken office following the sudden resignation of her predecessor Ivo Sanader. Kosor was the first and so far only woman to become Prime Minister of Croatia since independence.
Kosor started working as a journalist, following her graduation from the Zagreb Faculty of Law. During the Croatian War of Independence, she hosted a radio show dealing with refugee problems and disabled war veterans. She joined the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989 and quickly climbed up the party hierarchy. In 1995 she was elected party vice-president and was elected to serve in Parliament for the first time. After the death of president and longtime HDZ leader Franjo Tuđman, Kosor supported Ivo Sanader's successful party leadership bid in 2000. Three years later, her party won the parliamentary election and Kosor became the Minister of Family, Veterans' Affairs and Inter-generational Solidarity in the Sanader's first and, later, Sanader's second cabinet, during which time she served as deputy prime minister as well. In the 2005 presidential election she ran as a representative of the HDZ, but lost to incumbent president Stjepan Mesić in the second round. After the abrupt resignation of Sanader, Kosor managed to form a functioning parliamentary majority and was approved to her new post as prime minister in July 2009, also becoming leader of her party. Kosor was the party's candidate for prime minister in the 2011 general election, but HDZ lost in a landslide over the centre-left Kukuriku coalition, led by the Social Democratic Party. Kosor handed power to the new prime minister, Zoran Milanović, in December 2011.
As prime minister, Kosor failed to commit to structural reforms although she managed to prevent the country's budgetary meltdown with two budget revisions and the introduction of new taxes as a response to the ongoing economic crisis. During her tenure, she strongly advocated a zero-tolerance policy to political corruption and organized crime. This uncompromising stance, along with the new criminal code passed before her term began, opened the door to unprecedented efforts to combat corruption. This resulted in arrests of numerous influential business-people and politicians from across the political spectrum, although most of them were members of HDZ, which severely damaged the party's reputation. The discoveries made by prosecutors were far-reaching and criminal charges were even raised against former prime minister Ivo Sanader and Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polančec, who would later be charged with lengthy prison sentences for criminal activity and abuse of power. In foreign policy, Kosor and her Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor were successful in solving the long-standing border dispute and she is credited with successfully finishing the negotiating process of the Croatian accession to the European Union. On 9 December 2011, she and President Ivo Josipović signed the EU Treaty of Accession in Brussels. A moderate conservative, Kosor ran for another term as party leader after losing the election, however, was defeated by the more conservative Tomislav Karamarko. After months of criticizing his leadership and the new party platform, she was expelled from HDZ by the party's High Court for damaging the party's reputation.
In 2021, Kosor was awarded with the Grand Order of Queen Jelena with Sash and Morning Star by President of Croatia Zoran Milanović for "extraordinary contribution to the international position and reputation of the Republic of Croatia" and for "the development of relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian people and other states and peoples."
Jadranka Kosor was born in Lipik to Zorica Belan and Mirko Kosor. She finished primary education in Pakrac. Her parents divorced when she was two, and she spent her childhood living with her grandmother. Her childhood friends describe her as a pretty, smart, and sociable girl that loved poetry and wrote songs. She contested a beauty pageant and was selected runner up for Miss Swimming Pool of Lipik. She studied in Zagreb, where she graduated in law and began working as a journalist from 1972 as a correspondent for Večernji list and Radio Zagreb. In 1971, her book of poetry Koraci was published by the Pakrac branch of Matica hrvatska. During the Croatian War of Independence, she worked as a radio-journalist and her show explored war topics such as refugee problems and disabled war veterans. She also worked briefly as a correspondent for the BBC during this time.
In 1995, Kosor became a representative in the Croatian Parliament as a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). She was also the vice-president of the Croatian Parliament. From 1999 to 2000, she was president of the HDZ's Women's Association Katarina Zrinski. She is credited with the number of female candidates from the HDZ in the 2000 elections doubling.
Kosor was the vice-president of the HDZ party between 1995 and 1997, and from 2002 up to 2009 when she became the president of the party. In 2003, she became the minister in the Croatian department for Family, Veterans and Inter-generational Solidarity in the Croatian Government of Ivo Sanader.
HDZ nominated her as their presidential candidate for the presidential election of 2005. In the first round, she overtook Boris Mikšić by a few percent to reach the second place. She then faced off Stipe Mesić in the second round, but lost.
In July 2009, she was politically installed as the head of the Croatian Democratic Union following the resignation of Ivo Sanader.
On 1 July 2009, Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader suddenly and unexpectedly resigned, and suggested Kosor as the next prime minister. With the support of the coalition partners Kosor went to the president Stjepan Mesić who invited her to form a government. This resulted in the formation of the Kosor cabinet which contained most members of the previous Sanader administration. On 6 July, Parliament approved the proposed cabinet with 83 votes in favor out of 153 members and Kosor was confirmed as the first female prime minister of Croatia after independence - actually the third in the history of the republic after two female prime ministers of Socialist Republic of Croatia. The Opposition was not pleased with this development calling Sanader a coward and Kosor his puppet saying that an early general election was necessary.
In the first month of her term Kosor, faced with a huge deficit and high unemployment, introduced an emergency budget aimed to reduce spending and the national debt. One of the most unpopular austerity measures taken along with the introduction of the budget was a new income tax called the "crisis tax" (krizni porez). In addition, the value-added tax rate was increased from 22% to 23%. Businesses criticized the tax hikes as well as the idea of tax code changes in the middle of the fiscal year as an unreasonable burden, while independent economists mostly noted how new taxes would cut consumer spending and further slow down the economy. The Opposition criticized the new measures heavily, calling the crisis tax harač, a historical Turkish loanword representing a tax implemented during the Ottoman Empire in the late Middle Ages. Indeed, the government's handling of finances was unpopular among the public resulting in the prime minister's dismal approval rating of 32% by the end of her first month.
In the last quarter of 2009, many public officials, as well as members of the boards of various government agencies, became suspected of participating in corrupt activities. An unprecedented number of officials were detained and arrested under these allegations which resulted in both praise and criticism of Kosor's government. The praise was mostly directed by those who believed that the government had finally taken a stronger stance against political corruption, while others criticized the fact that most suspects were, in fact, members of Kosor's own Croatian Democratic Union. The Opposition accused the government, especially the prime minister, for political responsibility, claiming that it was impossible that Kosor didn't know what was happening around her when she was a vice president of the government almost seven years before becoming prime minister. The accusations grew louder as more and more corruption affairs were tied with the former prime minister, Ivo Sanader. On 30 October 2009 Damir Polančec, member of the HDZ Presidency, resigned as deputy prime minister and minister of the economy following allegations of corruption.