Vesna Pusić

Vesna Pusić
Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 December 2011
Prime Minister	Zoran Milanović
Preceded by	Gordan Jandroković
President of the Croatian People's Party
In office 2000–2008
Preceded by	Radimir Čačić
Succeeded by	Radimir Čačić
Personal details
Born	25 April 1953 (1953-04-25) Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Political party	Croatian People's Party
Religion	Atheist
Website	vesna-pusic.hns.hr

Vesna Pusić (pronounced [ʋɛ̂sna pǔːsitɕ]; born 25 March 1953) is a Croatian politician and one of the most prominent members of the liberal Croatian People's Party. Since December 2011 she serves as Croatia's Foreign Minister in the centre-left Cabinet of Zoran Milanović.

After becoming involved in politics in the early 1990s, Pusić served three consecutive terms as MP, having been elected to the Croatian Parliament in the 2000, 2003, and 2007 elections. She also ran in the 2009–10 presidential election, coming in fifth with 7.25 percent of the vote. During her 2008–2011 parliament term she chaired the parliamentary committee for tracking the progress of Croatia's accession negotiations with the European Union.

Pusić also held the post of Vice-President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR). She is known as an outspoken liberal, and a vocal advocate of European integration, gender equality and LGBT rights.

Biography

Vesna Pusić was born in Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia to the family of Eugen Pusić, a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb and Višnja Pusić, a professor of English language. Her brother Zoran is known as a civil rights and peace activist.

She graduated from gymnasium in 1971 and then from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, sociology and philosophy, in 1976. From 1975 to 1979 she was a member of the IDE - International Research Group doing research on industrial democracy in Europe. From 1976 to 1978 she was a researcher at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Since 1978 she has been working at the Sociology Department of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb, and teaching courses in the Theory of Industrial Democracy and the Sociology of Politics. She obtained a doctorate in sociology in 1984 at the same faculty, and in 1988 she became a tenured professor.

In 1978 Pusić was one of seven women who initiated the first feminist organization in SFR Yugoslavia Žena i društvo, and was widely criticized by the authorities at the time.

Vesna Pusić was one of the 28 founding members of the Croatian People's Party (Hrvatska narodna stranka, HNS) in 1990, after participating in the Coalition of People's Accord. She left party politics in 1992, but rejoined the same party in 1997 and was later its President between 2000 and 2008. She first entered the Parliament on the Croatian parliamentary election, 2000.

In 1992 Pusić was the co-founder and director of the Erasmus Guild, a non-governmental, non-partisan think-tank for the culture of democracy, and the publisher and editor of the journal Erasmus, focusing specifically on different issues of transition in Croatia, countries of former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe. Erasmus Guild ceased operations in 1998.

In 2005 and 2008 she was made the head of the National Committee for EU negotiations, the body that oversees accession negotiations and is composed of members of parliament as well as representatives of the President, the academic community, and employers and union representatives.

In 2006 and 2008 she was elected vice-president of ELDR.

Pusić lectured at the University of Chicago, at the Cornell University (New York), and at the American University (Washington D.C.), as well as the Wilson Center.

She lives in Zagreb with her husband. Her daughter currently lives in London and studies MA Filmmaking at the prestigious London Film School.

Vesna Pusić is very popular in the Croatian LGBT community. In 2011 Zagreb Pride attenders awarded her with the "gay friendly person of the decade". She has been regular attendant at Zagreb LGBT pride march.

In the Croatian presidential election, 2009–2010, Pusić was the HNS-LD candidate. She won 7.25% in the first round, placing fifth out of twelve candidates, and was thus eliminated from the second round.

Bibliography

• Democracies and Dictatorships, Durieux, Zagreb 1998
• The Leaders and the Managers, Novi Liber, Zagreb 1992
• Industrial Democracy and Civil Society, Sociološko društvo Hrvatske, Zagreb 1986.
• Industrial Democracy in Europe, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1981 (co-author)
• European Industrial Relations, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1981 (co-author)

External links

• Official website (Croatian)
• "Abandoning the War Mentality". interview with Vesna Pusic. Central Europe Review. 27 April 2000. http://www.ce-review.org/00/19/interview19_pusic.html. 

Party political offices
Preceded by Radimir Čačić	0President of the Croatian People's Party0 2000–2008	Succeeded by Radimir Čačić