Milan Bandić
From Freepedia
Milan Bandić (b. 1955 in Donji Mamići near Grude in Bosnia-Herzegovina) is a Croatian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia. He is the Mayor of Zagreb, currently in his 3rd term.
Political career
He came to Zagreb where he earned degree at Political Science Faculty of University of Zagreb. He became member of Communist Party and remained there after the first democratic elections, being one of the few Herzegovina Croats to do so. As such, he proved to be valuable asset for reformed Communist party. He showed great organisational ability and populist insticts, that allowed SDP to make dramatic advances in Zagreb blue-collar neighbourhoods and get votes that Franjo Tuđman and his HDZ party had considered their own by default. This manifested itself on 1995 parliamentary and City of Zagreb elections, leading to Zagreb Crisis.
The first time he was elected mayor was in 2000, and then he was re-elected on regular city elections in 2001.
During the first campaign, his Herzegovina background became an issue due to Croatian Peasant Party suggesting that only a native citizen of Zagreb could become city's mayor. It hoped that majority of Zagreb voters would turn away from Bandić because his countrymen were perceived to be privileged class during Tuđman's regime and involved in all kinds of scandals. Those expectations weren't met and Bandić later used Herzegovina background as an advantage, broadening his support among elements of Croatian establishment that had right-wing political views.
Bandić had a driving incident in January 2002, where he was speeding while intoxicated by alcohol, and then fled from the police and tried to bribe the officer who stopped him. He resigned his mayoral office because of this and was demoted to vice-mayor. In January 2003, he suffered a stroke, but soon returned to office.
His rapid rise to power and popularity created a backlash, especially among liberal intellectuals gathered around HNS and Vesna Pusić, who despise his populism and ocasional defiance towards decisions made by courts and national government. Since Zagreb makes almost four fifths of Croatian GDP, Bandić is often perceived as the third most powerful politician in Croatia. This is the reason why he was able to maintain political base independent even from SDP and remain as the only top Party official who could defy Ivica Račan.
He was elected again in 2005.
Health problems
He is well known for being a workaholic – he often says that he works 15 to 16 hours a day – which boosts his popularity. However, his health has suffered significantly because of this.
On July 3, 2003, during a session of Zagreb City Council he started feeling bad, and after the session he requested medical help. Media reported that he had a minor stroke, but official explanation was that it was a spasm of a blood vessel in the endocranium as a result of exhaustion and hard work (Bandić himself in his interviews refers to the condidion as stroke). He was hospitalized for a few weeks (where he was fed through a tube) and then transferred to the Krapinske toplice (spa) for recovery. His political career was at the time regarded as finished, but he rapidly recovered and in early September of 2003 was again on duty.
On September 24, 2005, while he was attending a wedding he got sick and after being transfered to hospital he was diagnosed with an ulcer. He was medically treated and the next day he was at work.
