Stipe Šuvar

Stipe Šuvar (February 17, 1936 – June 29, 2004) was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav politician and sociologist. He entered top politics in 1972 being co-opted to the Central Committee (CC) of the League of Communists of Croatia (LCC). Two years later he became Croatian minister of education and performed a controversial educational reform in Croatia. From 1982 to 1986 he was a member of the CC LCC Presidium, in 1986 he was elected to the Presidium of the CC of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) and became a chairman of the body in June 1988. In May 1989 Croatian Parliament elected Šuvar the Croatian member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia but dismissed him in August 1990 when, after the first multi-party elections in Croatia, it was already controlled by Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Franjo Tudjman. After the collapse of socialism and of Yugoslavia, Šuvar remained politically active in Croatia, founded the magazine Hrvatska ljevica in 1994 and the Socialist Labour Party of Croatia (SRP) in 1997. Šuvar resigned as the party's president in 2004, shortly before his death.