Ivan Malenica (born 21 July 1985) is a Croatian lawyer and politician serving as Minister of Justice and Public Administration since 2020.

Early life and education

Malenica was born in

Šibenik Šibenik () is a historic city in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is a political, educational, transport, industrial and tourist center of Šibenik-Knin County, and is also the ...

on 21 July 1985, where he attended elementary and high school. He graduated from the Split Faculty of Law in 2008. In 2013 Malenica was a student at the postgraduate doctoral study of the Zagreb Faculty of Law in the direction of Public law and administration. His family is originally from Brištani, one of the seven villages in the

Miljevci Miljevci or Miljevci plateau is a small region in Šibenik-Knin County in Croatia that includes seven villages. The plateau has an area of over 100 square kilometers and is located between the rivers of Krka (Croatia), Krka, Čikola and mountain ...

area near the town of

Drniš Drniš is a town in Croatia, located in inland Dalmatia, about halfway between Šibenik and Knin. History The name Drniš was mentioned for the first time in a contract dated March 8, 1494. However, there are traces of older Middle Ages' fortr ...

, in

Šibenik-Knin County Šibenik-Knin County (; hr, Šibensko-kninska županija ) is a county in southern Croatia, located in the north-central part of Dalmatia. The biggest city in the county is Šibenik, which also serves as county seat. Other notable towns in the co ...

. His father Ante was a long-time director of ''Ceste Šibenik'', and his uncle Frane is one of the founders of the

Croatian People's Party Croatian may refer to: *Croatia *Croatian language *Croatian people *Croatians (demonym) See also * * * Croatan (disambiguation) * Croatia (disambiguation) * Croatoan (disambiguation) * Hrvatski (disambiguation) * Hrvatsko (disambiguation) * Se ...

's branch in Šibenik, and current director of the ''Vodovod i odvodnja'', a water supply company and drainage in Šibenik.

Political career

In 2016 Malenica was named a candidate of the

Croatian Democratic Union The Croatian Democratic Union ( hr, Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, lit=Croatian Democratic Community, HDZ) is the major conservative, centre-right political party in Croatia. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Croa ...

for the State Secretary in the

Ministry of Public Administration The Ministry of Public Administration () (abbreviated as MoPa) is primarily responsible for management of public administration in Bangladesh. Present minister is Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Minister of State is Farhad Hossain. Present Senior secre ...

in the period when

Andrej Plenković Andrej Plenković ( ; born 8 April 1970) is a Croatian politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Croatia since 19 October 2016. He was previously one of eleven Croatian members of the European Parliament, serving from Croatia's ...

came to power, but Josipa Rimac took over the role. In 2018 after the elections in the HDZ's

branch, he became the president of the HDZ board of governors. He was also in charge of advising Prime Minister Plenković on issues related to the public administration, then received the unanimous support of the party president and the party's national council. After a series of real estate affairs Lovro Kuščević resigned as minister of public administration, whereupon on 17 July 2019 Plenković appointed Malenica for Kuščević's successor. He stressed on that occasion that he will do everything to make the public administration serve the citizens and that they will realize their rights and particular interests as soon as possible and with as little financial resources as possible. A very important project and means that will enable all this to be considered digitalization of public administration. On 21 July 2020, on his 35th birthday, Malenica tested positive for the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

amid its pandemic in Croatia, while three days later he sworn in as Minister of Justice and Public Administration in the second Plenković cabinet.

References

1985 births Living people Croatian Democratic Union politicians Croatian lawyers Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb alumni People from Šibenik University of Split alumni Justice ministers of Croatia {{Croatia-politician-stub