Zdravko Tomac

Who is Zdravko Tomac?

Zdravko Tomac is a Croatian politician.

A native of Slavonski Brod, Zdravko Tomac began his political career in Communist Party of Yugoslavia. There he rose through the ranks, becoming close associate of Jakov Blažević. In late 1980s he became one of the chief ideologists of League of Communists of Croatia and one of the closest associates of Ivica Račan.

After Croatian Communist Party rebranded itself into Social Democratic Party of Croatia and lost 1990 parliamentary elections, Tomac worked very hard to steer the party towards the nationalist course close to Franjo Tuđman and ruling Croatian Democratic Union. Because of that, Tomac became deputy prime minister in the wartime "National Unity" government of Franjo Gregurić, thus becoming one of the first top Communist officials in Eastern Europe to return to top executive post after the fall of Berlin Wall. He served as deputy prime minister from August 1991 to June 1992. There Tomac pushed for hardline policies under the pretext of helping war effort, including the curbing of press freedom and criticising human rights organisations for their meddling in Croatian internal affairs.

Because of that, many in Croatian public saw Tomac as just another of many former Communist officials who discarded their former ideology in order to embrace Croatian nationalism of Tuđman and HDZ. The only difference was in Tomac choosing to remain within the former Communist Party. This served SDP very well, which made Tomac into one of their most prominent members and thus gained enough nationalist credentials to improve its electoral chances in the long run.