Mirko Marjanovic
Encyclopedia
Mirko Marjanović (July 27, 1937 in Knin
, Littoral Banovina
, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
— February 21, 2006 in Belgrade
, Serbia
, Serbia-Montenegro) was a former Prime Minister of Serbia
and a high-ranking official in Slobodan Milošević
's Socialist Party of Serbia
(SPS).
.
After completing primary school and gymnasium
in his hometown, Marjanović moved to Zagreb
where he attended musical academy which he never finished.
He then moved to Belgrade
, where in 1960 he graduated at University of Belgrade
's Faculty of Economics
, more specifically at the department for microeconomics
.
Upon graduation, Marjanović came back to Knin
since he found employment there as the supervisor in Tvik factory. From there, he advanced to the position of financial director, and eventually moving on to metallurgical factory in Zenica
. In 1973, he transferred to the Moscow
outpost of Progres - a state company that handled close to 80% of Yugoslav black metallurgy
and other heavy industries.
By 1976 he quickly advanced up the ranks to become one of the directors at Progres. He handled company's steel division in Russia quite successfully while developing an impressive network of influential friends and business partners such as Viktor Chernomyrdin
(later to become Prime Minister of Russia
), and Yuri Brezhnev
, son of Leonid Brezhnev
.
In 1979, Marjanovic was named as Progres' general director.
From 1989 until 1994, he was the president of FK Partizan
's executive board. One of his more notable moves while at the post was bringing Predrag Mijatović
to the club in December 1989. Mijatović, at the time a young promising player from Titograd's FK Budućnost
, was very close to signing with Hajduk Split when Marjanović stepped in and convinced him to come to Belgrade
. Upon leaving the club, Marjanović was named Partizan's honorary president.
.
and New Democracy) formed a government with far-right Serbian Radical Party
(SRS) led by Vojislav Šešelj
. Marjanović was picked for another PM term that started on March 24, 1998.
Naturally, Marjanović continued as a mere extension of Slobodan Milošević who at this time held the post of President of Yugoslavia. Here's how sources from the top levels of Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia described Marjanović's government modus operandi in Evropljanin magazine: Prime Minister Marjanovic suggests something - ministers do not vote - and then Marjanović simply concludes the matter as agreed on. Of course Marjanovic neither suggest nor concludes anything without first consulting Milošević. (Evropljanin
issue #13, 19 October 1998, p. 15)
Even deputy PM Vojislav Šešelj indirectly confirmed this operating procedure when he said the government meetings are always well prepared, never lasting longer than 15–20 minutes. (Srpska slobodarska misao, Vol. I 2000, issue #1, p. 142)
This two-year period is widely seen as the most brutal of the entire 13 years of Milošević's regime. Marjanović's government (with Šešelj as its deputy PM), passed two of what critics consider to be the most draconian pieces of legislation in Serbian political history: the University Law that stripped University of Belgrade
of its autonomy, opening the way for regime to install politically obedient professors, deans and rectors, as well as the Information Law, that aimed to restrict the activities of media financed by Serbia's enemies; despite this, such media played a prominent role in the 5 October 2000 coup d'état.
Similarly to his first term in office, Marjanović again took a back seat, leaving the limelight to more aggressive members of his cabinet like deputy PM Šešelj and Minister of Information Aleksandar Vučić
.
Finally, on 21 October 2000, some two weeks after regime overthrow on October the 5th, Marjanović resigned to be replaced by transitional government composed of Democratic Opposition of Serbia
(DOS), Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), and Serbian Renewal Movement
(SPO) until new parliamentary elections could be organized.
Although allegations of wrongdoing ran rampant for years, Marjanović was never prosecuted. No legal action was taken against him after the new authorities took office following the overthrew of Milošević
regime in October 2000. On 23 January 2002, Marjanović was re-elected as Progres' main board president.
Knin
Knin is a historical town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia, located near the source of the river Krka at , in the Dalmatian hinterland, on the railroad Zagreb–Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as a one-time capital of both the Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the...
, Littoral Banovina
Littoral Banovina
The Littoral Banovina or Littoral Banate was a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1939. This province consisted of much of the historical region of Dalmatia, now in Croatia, and parts of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and was named for its coastal location...
, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
— February 21, 2006 in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Serbia-Montenegro) was a former Prime Minister of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and a high-ranking official in Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
's Socialist Party of Serbia
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
(SPS).
Biography
Marjanović was born into a large working-class family with 7 children in the former Republic of Yugoslavia of what is now modern day Knin, Croatia. He had 4 brothers and 2 sisters. His father, Dušan, worked in the local factory, while mother Marija was a homemakerHomemaker
Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...
.
After completing primary school and gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in his hometown, Marjanović moved to Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
where he attended musical academy which he never finished.
He then moved to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, where in 1960 he graduated at University of Belgrade
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
's Faculty of Economics
University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics
The University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics is one of the educational institutions of the University of Belgrade, Serbia. The building is located in the city center of Belgrade...
, more specifically at the department for microeconomics
Microeconomics
Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of how the individual modern household and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources. Typically, it applies to markets where goods or services are being bought and sold...
.
Upon graduation, Marjanović came back to Knin
Knin
Knin is a historical town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia, located near the source of the river Krka at , in the Dalmatian hinterland, on the railroad Zagreb–Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as a one-time capital of both the Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the...
since he found employment there as the supervisor in Tvik factory. From there, he advanced to the position of financial director, and eventually moving on to metallurgical factory in Zenica
Zenica
Zenica is an industrial city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the capital of the Zenica-Doboj Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity...
. In 1973, he transferred to the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
outpost of Progres - a state company that handled close to 80% of Yugoslav black metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
and other heavy industries.
By 1976 he quickly advanced up the ranks to become one of the directors at Progres. He handled company's steel division in Russia quite successfully while developing an impressive network of influential friends and business partners such as Viktor Chernomyrdin
Viktor Chernomyrdin
Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was the founder and the first chairman of the Gazprom energy company, the longest serving Prime Minister of Russia and Acting President of Russia for a day in 1996. He was a key figure in Russian politics in the 1990s, and a great contributor to the Russian...
(later to become Prime Minister of Russia
Prime Minister of Russia
The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation The use of the term "Prime Minister" is strictly informal and is not allowed for by the Russian Constitution and other laws....
), and Yuri Brezhnev
Yuri Brezhnev
Yuri Leonidovich Brezhnev is the son of Soviet politician and longtime General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and Viktoria Brezhneva.-Life and career:By Konstantin Chernenko's death Yuri had become a chronic alcoholic...
, son of Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
.
In 1979, Marjanovic was named as Progres' general director.
From 1989 until 1994, he was the president of FK Partizan
FK Partizan
Fudbalski klub Partizan is a professional football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. In its long history, FK Partizan won as many as 37 trophies. The club is the holder of 23 national championships, 12 national cups and 1 national supercup, and has also won the Mitropa Cup in 1978...
's executive board. One of his more notable moves while at the post was bringing Predrag Mijatović
Predrag Mijatovic
Predrag "Peđa" Mijatović is a Montenegrin football player and former sports director of Real Madrid. He is considered one of Yugoslavia's best players of the 1990s. He was acclaimed as the best athlete of Yugoslavia in 1997...
to the club in December 1989. Mijatović, at the time a young promising player from Titograd's FK Budućnost
FK Buducnost Podgorica
FK Budućnost is a football club from Podgorica, Montenegro, currently competing in the First League of Montenegro. Its colours are blue and white. FK Buducnost is a part of the Budućnost sport society.-History:...
, was very close to signing with Hajduk Split when Marjanović stepped in and convinced him to come to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. Upon leaving the club, Marjanović was named Partizan's honorary president.
Prime Minister of Serbia 1994-1998
Marjanovic officially commenced his PM term on 18 March 1994. He was widely regarded as little more than a puppet of then Serbian president Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
.
Prime Minister of Serbia 1998-2000
After early parliamentary elections in late 1997, Milošević's SPS-led coalition (with Yugoslav LeftYugoslav Left
Yugoslav Left was a left-wing political party in Serbia and Montenegro. It was formed in 1994 as is a coalition of 23 left-wing and communist parties, led by the League of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia . It has been led by Mirjana Marković, the wife of Slobodan Milošević...
and New Democracy) formed a government with far-right Serbian Radical Party
Serbian Radical Party
The Serbian Radical Party is a far-right Serbian nationalist political party in Serbia, founded in 1991. Currently the second-largest party in the Serbian National Assembly, it has branches in three of the nations that currently border Serbia – all former federal republics of Yugoslavia...
(SRS) led by Vojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj, JD is a Serbian politician, writer and lawyer. He is the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party and was vice-president of Serbia between 1998 and 2000...
. Marjanović was picked for another PM term that started on March 24, 1998.
Naturally, Marjanović continued as a mere extension of Slobodan Milošević who at this time held the post of President of Yugoslavia. Here's how sources from the top levels of Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia described Marjanović's government modus operandi in Evropljanin magazine: Prime Minister Marjanovic suggests something - ministers do not vote - and then Marjanović simply concludes the matter as agreed on. Of course Marjanovic neither suggest nor concludes anything without first consulting Milošević. (Evropljanin
Evropljanin
Evropljanin was a bi-weekly newsmagazine published in Serbia during the late 1990s. It was started in April 1998, visually modeled after the German newsmagazine Focus....
issue #13, 19 October 1998, p. 15)
Even deputy PM Vojislav Šešelj indirectly confirmed this operating procedure when he said the government meetings are always well prepared, never lasting longer than 15–20 minutes. (Srpska slobodarska misao, Vol. I 2000, issue #1, p. 142)
This two-year period is widely seen as the most brutal of the entire 13 years of Milošević's regime. Marjanović's government (with Šešelj as its deputy PM), passed two of what critics consider to be the most draconian pieces of legislation in Serbian political history: the University Law that stripped University of Belgrade
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
of its autonomy, opening the way for regime to install politically obedient professors, deans and rectors, as well as the Information Law, that aimed to restrict the activities of media financed by Serbia's enemies; despite this, such media played a prominent role in the 5 October 2000 coup d'état.
Similarly to his first term in office, Marjanović again took a back seat, leaving the limelight to more aggressive members of his cabinet like deputy PM Šešelj and Minister of Information Aleksandar Vučić
Aleksandar Vucic
Aleksandar Vučić is a Serbian politician, Deputy President of the Serbian Progressive Party. He is a former secretary-general of the Serbian Radical Party and was President of the Serbian Radical Party's city parliamentary club before joining the Serbian Progressive Party. Besides Serbian,...
.
Finally, on 21 October 2000, some two weeks after regime overthrow on October the 5th, Marjanović resigned to be replaced by transitional government composed of Democratic Opposition of Serbia
Democratic Opposition of Serbia
The Democratic Opposition of Serbia was a wide alliance of political parties in Serbia , formed as a coalition against the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and its leader, Slobodan Milošević in 2000...
(DOS), Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), and Serbian Renewal Movement
Serbian Renewal Movement
The Serbian Renewal Movement is a political party in Serbia.It was founded in 1990.In 1997 a dissident group abandoned the party and formed New Serbia....
(SPO) until new parliamentary elections could be organized.
Business career while in office
Marjanović continued to lead Progres all throughout his 6 and a half years as Serbian PM, though he claimed his status at the company was frozen. The company, which during the 1990s started importing gas from Russia (deal personally negotiated by Marjanović) was still officially publicly owned.Although allegations of wrongdoing ran rampant for years, Marjanović was never prosecuted. No legal action was taken against him after the new authorities took office following the overthrew of Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
regime in October 2000. On 23 January 2002, Marjanović was re-elected as Progres' main board president.