Boris Mikšić
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Boris Mikšić is a Croatian businessman and politician.
In early 1970s, Mikšić, the native of Zagreb, then part of Yugoslavia, emigrated to the United States of America. He settled in Minnesota where he gradually began his business creating the Cortex Co. Through the years he became one of the wealthiest Croatian Americans. He first ventured into the Croatian politics as an independent candidate in the 2003 parliamentary elections.
In 2005, he ran as an independent candidate on the Croatian presidential elections. His campaign was partialy based on creating image of a simple Zagreb youth, who fulfilled so called American Dream, as well the opposition to ICTY and Eurosceptic views. Due to the fact that the last was outside the mainstream political view in Croatia, few took him seriously, despite the lavish campaign he was able to pay for.
On January 2, to the surprise of many, first election projections showed him as winning 2nd place, knocking the government's candidate Jadranka Kosor out of the race. Immediately many commentators began to intreprete his success as a protest vote against the Croatian political establishment, engulfed in corruption and being notoriously inefficient. As if Mikšić, already wealthy has been seen by voters as more decent and less corruptible candidate.
Few hours later new projections, based on the votes cast by Croatian citizens in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, brought Jadranka Kosor to the 2nd place. Mikšić was surprised as was the most of Croatian public. At first he refused to accept results and called supporters to demonstrate on streets over alleged vote fraud. He was inspired by at that time actual Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Demonstrations were complete failure, with only the small groups of extremists protesting in front of the Croatian Democratic Union offices being noticed and really worth of reporting. Suddenly, Mikšić started distancing himself from what he initially orchestrated and just few days later he finally conceded.
When he conceded, he nevertheless announced his candidacy in local elections, including those for Zagreb City Assembly. His announcement was quickly followed by media reporters revealing his history of alleged spousal abuse, while most mainstream commentators described him as the charlatan and dangerous populist. Campaign appeared to have effect within the 2005 local elections. His slate did enter the Zagreb City Assembly, but with only three seats, which was fewer than he expected.