Zlatko Kramarić

Who is Zlatko Kramarić?

Zlatko Kramarić is a Croatian liberal politician from Osijek.

Kramarić was born in Osijek and graduated in philology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Later he obtained a master's degree and a doctorate from the same faculty.

He entered Croatian politics in 1990, during the first free democratic elections when he was candidate of non-partisan "Osijek List" for Osijek local assembly. With the backing of Croatian Democratic Union, he became the first non-Communist mayor of Osijek after 1945.

A year later, Osijek became a battleground in the conflict between Croatian government and local Serbs, backed by Yugoslav People's Army. During those events Kramarić had little power and city became under full control of local HDZ strongman Branimir Glavaš. But Kramarić, with his boyish looks, calm demeanour and a great sense of humour managed to use media spotlight in order to become one of the most charismatic and popular public figures in Croatia. Soon after the hostilities ended, Kramarić described his experience in a book of memoirs. Some of more colourful passages, especially those describing the role of local HDZ officials in the opening stages of conflict, brought him great enmity from government and even public threats against his life.