Tomislav Karamarko

Tomislav Karamarko

Tomislav Karamarko (born May 25, 1959 in Zadar , SFR Yugoslavia ) is a Croatian politician and former President of the Croatian Democratic Union .

Professional career

Tomislav Karamarko was born in the days of the former Yugoslavia in the Croatian coastal city of Zadar . He studied history at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Zagreb , where he graduated in 1985. From 1987 to 1988 he worked as a historian and archivist in the Croatian State Archives.

In 1992 Karamarko was entrusted with the duties of head of cabinet under the former Croatian Prime Minister Josip Manolić . Karamarko also held this position under the former Croatian Prime Minister Franjo Gregurić . At the same time, in 1992/93, under the Croatian President Stjepan Mesić .

From 1993 to 1996 Karamarko was head of the Zagreb Police Department. In 1998 he was assistant to the interior minister of the Republic of Croatia, and from 2000 onwards he was the representative of the electoral authority for Stjepan Mesić, who was then a presidential candidate.

Also in 2000, Karamarko became an advisor to the newly elected President of Croatia on national security issues. He became chairman of the Office for National Security (UNS) of the Republic of Croatia, which served as the control body for all state intelligence services. After the reform of the secret services in 2002 was contrary to Karamarko's ideas, he submitted the resignation.

Karamarko worked in the private sector between 2002 and 2004. Among other things, he founded the company Soboli doo, which was active in the field of 'business intelligence', personal security and electronic security / surveillance. Some high-ranking former employees of the Croatian intelligence services started there. He sold his shares in the company in 2005 after returning to government service.

From 2004 he became director of the Croatian Intelligence Service (POA), in 2006 director of the Croatian Security Intelligence Service (SOA), which emerged from the amalgamation of several services, where he remained until 2008.

In 2008 he was appointed Minister of the Interior of Croatia. He held this office until the change of government in December 2011. From May 2012 he was chairman of the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union).

As a result of the parliamentary election in November 2015 , there was a coalition government of Karamarkos HDZ and the reform party MOST , which was newly elected to parliament, under the non-party Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković . This was confirmed by parliament on January 22, 2016, and Karamarko has since held the post of one of the two vice-premiers.

At the end of May 2016, the opposition Social Democratic Party initiated impeachment proceedings against Karamarko. The background to this was allegations of corruption in connection with the sale of shares in the state-owned mineral oil company INA to the Hungarian competitor MOL, which the HDZ had advocated . According to media reports, his wife Ana Šarić-Karamarko is said to have received 60,000 euros from MOL for consulting activities. The coalition partner MOST announced that it would support the proceedings against Karamarko. In return, the HDZ described MOST as incompetent and called on its party chairman Božo Petrov , also Vice Premier, to resign. After Prime Minister Orešković asked both Karamarko and Petrov to resign from office, Karamarkos HDZ withdrew his trust on June 3, 2016.Since a Commission for Conflicts of Interest confirmed on June 15, 2016 that such a case existed in his case, he anticipated the voting procedure and resigned on the same day. On June 21, he also resigned the chairmanship of the HDZ.

Private life

Tomislav Karamarko is a Catholic and was married to Enisa Muftić from 1993 to 2011, who comes from a well-known Muslim family. The marriage had two children. After the divorce, he married the 17 years younger media consultant Ana Šarić in 2015 with whom he has another daughter.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Overview of the structure of the Office for National Security (English)
2. ↑ Reports on differences of opinion among the secret services (Croatian)
3. ↑ Report on Karamarko's resignation (Croatian)
4. ↑ Report on the functioning of Karamarko's private company (Croatian) ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Statement by the company owner (Croatian) ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Report on the sale of company shares (Croatian)
7. ^ Report on Karamarko's appointment in 2004 (Croatian)
8. ↑ Presentation on the official website (English)
9. ↑ Tomislav Karamarko na čelu HDZ-a. In: hrt.hr. May 21, 2012, accessed May 21, 2012 (Croatian). 
10. ↑ Non- party becomes the new head of government in Croatia. Zeit Online, December 23, 2015, accessed June 5, 2016
11. ↑ Parliament approves new government. Zeit Online, January 23, 2016, accessed June 5, 2016
12. ^ Adelheid Wölfl: Croatia's government is walking on thin ice. Der Standard, May 30, 2016, accessed June 5, 2016
13. ^ Crisis in Croatia: Government on the brink of collapse Spiegel Online, June 3, 2016, accessed June 5, 2016
14. ^ Adelheid Wölfel: Croatia's Vice Prime Minister Karamarko resigns. Der Standard, June 15, 2016, accessed the day after
15. ↑ Adelheid Wölfl: Karamarko resigns as HDZ boss Der Standard, June 21, 2016, accessed on the same day

Web links

• Biography (Croatian), (English)
• Biography (Croatian), (English)
• Interview 2002 (Croatian)