Franjo Gregurić

Who is Franjo Gregurić?

Franjo Gregurić is a Croatian politician who served as prime minister of Croatia from July 1991 to September 1992.

Gregurić was born in the Zagorje village of Lobor. He attended the Technical highschool in Zagreb, and then the Technical Faculty of the University of Zagreb. His work experience included the chemical factories "Radonja" in Sisak, and "Chromos" in Zagreb, where he advanced to the positions of a technical director. He then became a high-ranking official of "Astra", a large state-owned company from Zagreb that exported to the Soviet Union, and Gregurić worked in Moscow for some time.

In the first democratic elections of 1990, Franjo Gregurić entered politics as a member of the Croatian Democratic Union. In the second Croatian government in 1990 he was a deputy prime minister. On 17 July 1991, he was appointed to the post of prime minister by President Franjo Tuđman.

When he took his post, Croatia was in very difficult situation - its independence was not recognised by international community and Croatia, unlike Slovenia, lacked proper military infrastructure to resist Krajina rebels backed by Yugoslav People's Army.