Branko Mikulić

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Branko Mikulić (1988)

Branko Mikulić (born June 10, 1928 in Bugojno , Kingdom of Yugoslavia , † April 12, 1994 in Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina ) was a Yugoslav politician. Mikulić was, among other things, chairman of the State Presidency of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina and from 1986 to 1989 Prime Minister of Yugoslavia. In the 1970s he was an opponent of the liberal reform communists in Serbia , Slovenia and Croatia and pursued an orthodox communist course.

Origin and education

Branko Mikulić came from a Croatian farming family from Gornji Vakuf . His father was a member of the Croatian Peasant Party , which he represented in the Anti-Fascist Council for the Liberation of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Second World War .

Mikulić studied economics in Zagreb after the war and joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia .

Political career

After completing his studies, he returned to his home region and began his career as a full-time functionary. First he was active in local party bodies in Gornji Vakuf, Bugojno, Livno and Zenica . Then party secretary in Bugojno and later in Jajce , he was also a member of the Central Committee of the Bosnian Communists. In 1965 Mikulić rose to the position of Secretary of the Central Committee. A year later he was elected Bosnian party leader. In the meantime he was also President of the Bosnian Parliament and in 1967 he became a member of the Central Committee of the All-Yugoslav League of Communists.

While the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina only played a subordinate role in the first two decades of socialist Yugoslavia, Mikulić managed to increase its influence in the state as a whole and not successfully represent Bosnia's economic interests. Financed for the most part from federal funds, it started an extensive investment program and numerous roads and schools were built across the country. In the 1970s he set up his own Bosnian energy combine and settled numerous manufacturing companies in his republic.

A difficult problem facing the Bosnian party and state leadership in the 1960s was the unresolved nationality issue. Mikulić successfully sought equality for the Muslim Bosniaks , who were previously listed as nationally undecided in Yugoslavia , and achieved their recognition as an independent nation. Mikulić reintegrated the Croatians of Herzegovina, who had been marginalized as Ustaše supporters and clerical fascists, into the political system of the republic.

In the early 1970s Branko Mikulic was one of those Yugoslav politicians who orthodox party line against reform-communist movements in Croatia (see. Croatian Spring represented) and Serbia because it these currents in conjunction with a resurgent nationalism as dangerous for Yugoslavia and especially for Looked at Bosnia. From Serbian and Croatian party leaders such as B. Dobrica Ćosić , Mihailo Marković , Savka Dabčević-Kučar and Miko Tripalo , Mikulić's conservative course was harshly criticized. Bosnia-Herzegovina under his leadership was characterized as a Stalinist state , a dark vilayet and a bantustan .

After the suppression of the liberal reformers, Mikulić was one of the confidants of the aged and already weakened President Josip Broz Tito . In October 1978 he was therefore elected executive chairman of the State Presidium at the suggestion of Tito. In this newly created office, Mikulić was supposed to take on the day-to-day tasks and lead the meetings of the Presidium when Tito himself was prevented from doing so. At the same time, the Bosnian politician was party leader of the League of Communists for one year in 1978/79.

After Tito's death, Mikulić returned to Sarajevo. From 1982 to 1983 he was chairman of the Bosnian State Presidium. Under his influence, a late Stalinist show trial against Muslim intellectuals, including Alija Izetbegović , took place in 1983 . You have been sentenced to long prison terms for alleged plans to destroy Yugoslavia.

The 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo represented the pinnacle of political success for Mikulić. But the games could only briefly whitewash the deep economic and political crisis in which Yugoslavia had found itself at least since the death of Tito.

In this difficult situation, Mikulić was elected Yugoslav Prime Minister in 1986. He tried a series of half-hearted and uncoordinated economic reforms to get the national debt and inflation under control. The leaderships of the individual republics rejected this policy and practiced obstruction. The Prime Minister came under pressure because he was deeply involved in the 1987 corruption scandal involving the trading company Agrokomerc , headed by Fikret Abdić . This was one of the main reasons for Mikulić's resignation in December 1987, when the rate of inflation had risen to 250%. Open and covert unemployment added up to more than half of the active population. At the same time, the internal Yugoslav competition took on increasingly tough forms against the backdrop of the crisis. Against this background, the conservative communist Mikulić and his government had not tried at all on political reforms, especially the necessary democratization of Yugoslavia. Even in the final phase of his government, the federal organs of Yugoslavia were no longer able to act politically. It was therefore not until March 1989 that a successor for the office of Yugoslav Prime Minister could be found in Ante Marković .

Branko Mikulić died in 1994 during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian capital.

literature

Web links

Commons : Branko Mikulić  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Lohhoff: From the ideal total capitalist to the real total criminal. The case of Yugoslavia. In: Krisis. Contributions to the criticism of the commodity society. 14 (1994).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.balzix.de  
personal data
SURNAME Mikulić, Branko
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yugoslav politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Bugojno , Kingdom of Yugoslavia
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1994
Place of death Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina