Ivo Baldasar (born 5 August 1958) is a Croatian politician who served as

Mayor of Split The Mayor of the City of Split ( hr, Gradonačelnik Grada Splita), colloquially the ''Poteštat'' (derived from "'' podestà''"), is the highest official of the Croatian city of Split. From 1990 to 2007 the mayor was elected by the city assembly. S ...

from 2013 until his resignation in March 2017. He was a member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SDP) until he was thrown out of the party in 2016. After that, he joined forces with the Bandić Milan 365 party. In 2017 he formed his own party called

The Split Party The Split Party ( hr, Splitska stranka or STS) was a Croatian centrist political party, formed in February 2017. The party was established by the former mayor of Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest co ...

Political career

Baldasar spent his early career working as a lawyer within the tourism industry, concentrating mainly on maritime business. He joined the SDP in 1998, and in 2009 became a city councilor for the city of Split. In 2012 he became the party's candidate for mayor of the city, winning the second round of

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

over Vjekoslav Ivanišević to become the 71st mayor of Split. On 9 May 2014 Baldasar attended the ceremony of revealing the monument to the 9th Battalion "Rafael Boban" of the

Croatian Defence Forces The Croatian Defence Forces ( hr, Hrvatske obrambene snage or HOS) were the paramilitary arm of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) from 1991 to 1992, during the first stages of the Yugoslav wars. During the Croatian War of Independence, the HOS ...

( hr, Hrvatske obrambene snage or HOS) that participated in the defense of Croatian during the Croatian War of Independence. His presence was criticised because of the

Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Move ...

inspired symbolism used by the HOS, including naming their unit after

Rafael Boban Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ' ...

who commanded the Black Legion, dressing in black uniforms and using the '' Za dom spremni'' motto. Some news reports suggested that after the commander of the Battalion ended his speech with ''Za dom spremni'', the gathered crowd clapped, with Baldasar allegedly, reluctantly doing the same. This was denied by Baldasar himself explaining he didn't hear anything and that he had an agreement with the organizers that such things wouldn't happen during the ceremony. He later defended his actions explaining that the members of HOS were anti-fascists in a way, because they fought against a new form of fascism during the Croatian War of Independence. He concluded that his actions were an attempt overcoming historical differences and that he would do it again. Ahead of 2013 referendum for changing constitution so it would define marriage as being a union between a man and a woman, Baldasar urged people to vote against proposed change. On 7 May 2016,

Zoran Milanović Zoran Milanović (; born 30 October 1966) is a Croatian politician serving as President of Croatia since 19 February 2020. Prior to assuming the presidency, he was prime minister from 2011 to 2016 and president of the Social Democratic Party f ...

dissolved the SDP organization in Split and thus all the party members in Split were thrown out of the party until a new chain of command is organized. This was decided in order to prevent Baldasar from running again as mayor because his controversial stances have gained him unpopularity in the city. On 8 June 2016, he announced his collaboration with

Mayor of Zagreb This article contains a list of people who have served as mayor of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, or president of the Zagreb Assembly. List See also *List of mayors in Croatia References External links Grad Zagreb - svi gradonačelnici ...

Milan Bandić Milan Bandić (22 November 1955 – 28 February 2021) was a Croatian politician and the longest-serving mayor of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Bandić was mayor almost continuously from 2000 to 2021, except during the time between his resignati ...

for the next local elections. In the 2016 parliamentary election Baldasar suffered a heavy loss winning only 303 votes. In December 2016, the city council of Split voted against his budget proposals. In February 2017, Baldasar formed a new party called

. He also announced running again for mayor in the 2017 local elections. On 28 March 2017, Baldasar resigned as mayor of Split after his proposals were voted down in the city council. In the 2017 Split local elections, The Split Party received only 239 votes for the city council while Ivo Baldasar finished last in the mayor race with only 553 votes.

References

External links

Mayor of Split
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldasar, Ivo 1958 births Mayors of Split, Croatia Social Democratic Party of Croatia politicians Living people